Posts Tagged ‘Advertising’
5 Social Media ‘No Nos’
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on February 2nd, 2012
When social media is done right it can add tremendous value and voice to your clients’ marketing plan. Unfortunately, there are still so many businesses that are missing the mark and solely using it as an extension of their brochure or sales pitch.
Here are five big mistakes still being made when businesses do social:
1. Being generic
Your posts need personality and your engagement. This doesn’t mean you should air all your dirty laundry, be negative, or relay a play-by-play narrative of your day’s events. It’s more about being human, and not appearing to be an automated robot churning out posts.
It also means you should avoid sending the same content all the time over all your networks. Think about your audience and the networks they frequent and tailor your message to them. This demonstrates that when you reach out to people, the interaction is directed to them.
2. Not writing for your audience
It’s fun to share things that interest you, but keep in mind, that if you want to attract the attention of prospects and others, you need to share information and updates that you know will be of interest to them. This is one of the major misunderstandings of social media. It’s not about you!
3. Not interacting enough
It’s so important to maintain a good level of engagement with your connections, as well as responding to what people are saying, asking, and commenting on. Showing that you care will demonstrate to others that you take your connections seriously and strengthen your network as a result. So many still treat social media as a broadcast platform. Which brings us to number 4…
4. Using the space for advertising
You will destroy your network in a flash by constantly promoting your services and products. Social media is a platform for building, expanding and maintaining relationships, so directly selling to people will distance you from them. Keep any ‘selling’ to about 10% and the rest to 90%.
5. Not listening
Listening is vital to any relationship, and social media is just that. It is not a one-way system, so be aware of what people in your network and potential network are saying. Tune into their needs, feedback, and struggles. While many companies fear any negative comments about their business, it’s essential to monitor your social voice and address any concerns as they happen so you can circumvent any long-term affects.
What about you? What particularly irritates you about companies that don’t quite get social right? Let us know by commenting below or posting it on our Facebook page!
What Are Your Advertising Resolutions?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on January 5th, 2012
With the cusp of a New Year upon us, it’s common for us to start to plan resolutions in our personal life. Perhaps you want to lose weight, get in better shape, or stop smoking. But what about your advertising methods? Couldn’t they use a little resolution list as well?
Will you use video this year?
Video is a great way to reach customers, yet fear often stops people from utilizing it to its fullest potential.
With the latest changes to the YouTube homepage, the experience is more of a social feed now, which gives marketers a powerful opportunity to enhance their brand exposure.
Rich media, in conjunction with video, is now more effective than simple Flash. When considering rich media campaigns, also think about including video to increase intent.
Will you start to mix social media with your display advertising?
Making display ads social increases the conversation with your customers, which is the top goal for all new media.
Do you try making your social media pages a primary destination rather than the website? How about setting up banner ads for interaction rather than broadcast only?
Social sharing is now becoming the norm when it comes to ads, blog posts, and even websites.
Are you going mobile with your ads?
I know you’re afraid, but its inevitable – users are now moving more and more to a multi-screen experience via desktop, mobile, and display and marketers must create these experiences in order to keep up.
Most mobile advertising now includes location-based strategies automatically – learn to use them creatively.
Remember – there’s no one right mix for every customer or client. By constantly being aware of your social media presence, you can evaluate the right person, the right timing, and the right message for your business.
Social media is not going away any time soon, but it will keep refining itself. Are you doing the same with your message?
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 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?
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!
Why Do You Need Testimonials?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on August 30th, 2011
Word of mouth is the oldest and most tried-and-true form of advertising. Why? Because it works! A potential client hears positive reviews about your services from someone they trust and they will even cast aside inconveniences to hire you. Unfortunately, word-of-mouth advertising reaches a very limited set of people. How do you broaden your reach and get your message out there?
Enter the testimonial.
Think about your purchasing habits – do you still blindly buy products and services or do you read reviews, ask your Facebook and Twitter network, or put a post in a forum or LinkedIn group asking if anyone has ever used them before?
Testimonials work because they nurture trust. Potential clients know that you’re only going to say positive things about your products and services. They want to be convinced by hearing from someone who has actually tried them. Prospective clients and customers have no reason to trust you, but they do trust their peers. This is called “social proof”.
Make sure your testimonial is believable! A testimonial that sounds fake will destroy trust rather than build it.
Testimonials must be real and valid. This is non-negotiable if you want to be authentic in your business. If you can, include the full name, location and a photo of the person giving the testimonial. Include their business or organization if it is relevant.
Also be sure your testimonial specifically answers any objections, doubts and fears your potential client may have before they have a chance to voice them.
How do you get testimonials?
Keep your ears and eyes open: write down any fleeting comments from a happy client as soon as possible after hearing them. Grab quotes from emails your clients send you, and make sure you ask permission to publish it from the sender.
Ask clients for feedback; it sounds like you want honest comments rather than sugary, fluffy praise.
What do you do with them?
Testimonials can be placed on your website, on your quotes and invoices, in print ads, sales letters, direct mail, or on your Blog. You can even highlight a “success” story of one of your satisfied clients and make them the star of your post!
How do you personally use testimonials in your purchasing decisions? Where do they fall in your decision-making process?
Do I Really Have to Consider Mobile Marketing?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Demographics, Marketing, Social Media on August 18th, 2011
Maybe you’re still trying to figure out this Twitter thing and you simply can’t imagine why you should consider yet another “fad”. Guess what:
Mobile marketing is no longer considered “out there”, it is here and still growing. If you’re not marketing your business to mobile users, you’re missing out on traffic. Remember that SmartPhones go wherever your prospective client or customer goes – ALWAYS!
How do you take advantage of this?
Get a Mobile Website
People do not want to go to your website and have to scroll forever to see a full-sized web page on their screen. Make sure you have an alternative mobile site that is simple and smart phone compatible. WordPress makes this very easy with a simple plugin. You have no excuse J
Consider Using QR Codes
The most important question to answer about creating QR codes is, “How will it make my customers’ lives easier?” Think about not only the useful information that needs to appear when people scan them but why someone would be motivated to use it. Does it save time? Paper? Hassle? Is it tied to a coupon or deal?
Create an App
Mobile users like apps better than web browsing because apps are dedicated to a specific function, and are often more efficient than web browsing. Make sure that your mobile app has a specific, useful function and is not just an abbreviated version of your full site.
What could clients or customers easily do with your app that they can’t efficiently do on your website? Is it easy to share information? Can you use location-based information to entice someone into your business when they are near?
Mobile Ads
Google Adwords has a program that targets mobile customers. It’s highly customizable, and although it’s a Pay Per Click option, there are new options to pay for only the calls generated by your ad. What’s next?
What about you? How are you reaching your mobile customers?
The Benefits of Keeping Your Blog Up to Date
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on July 28th, 2011
How often do you update your blog? Whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly (not recommended!), it should be consistent. Your readers come to expect new information regularly from you, and it is far worse to have sporadic entries posted than to have no blog at all.
Why? How do regularly scheduled updates help your business?
SEO
The search engine bots love new content from blogs, but only if you are updating it regularly. Providing constant updates to your website is the quickest and easiest way to get noticed by Google. That is of course if your regular posts contain strategic keywords and appropriate links.
Audience
If you are updating your blog regularly with quality, helpful content, people will return to your blog for more. Some may even subscribe! Once they do, guess what – they expect you to publish more quality, helpful content. The worst thing you can do is start and then “fall off the map”. Decide on a schedule and stick to it.
Expertise
When you are consistently providing regular posts to your audience, you start to get noticed by not only your fans, but also other professionals in your field. In today’s market, people are playing in the sandbox together more and more, via joint ventures and guest blogging for each other’s communities. This can only increase your exposure and help to brand you as an expert.
If updating your blog regularly is too time-consuming for your business, contact us and we’ll help you get on track!
What is Behavioral Targeting?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on July 26th, 2011
The Internet is getting more and more like “Big Brother”… Google guesses what you’re thinking, Facebook serves ads that seem to always correspond with your interests… but what exactly is behavioral targeting and how is it used to advertise?
Targeting companies are hired to place a piece of code on a website. Then, when a user is surfing the web, the site will put a cookie on your browser, which populates as you surf.
Now that your browser has a cookie, the targeting begins. A profile is formed as you click your way from site to site. This cookie takes note of what you buy, what you read and what you search for. The more time goes on, the more data is collected, gauging your interests and preferences.
With systems tracking your moves, keeping tabs on your browsing history, the Internet can get to know you better — and be smarter than ever. This is marketing gold, as more relevant content can lead to more engagement.
Consumers are starting to expect that their Internet experience be all about them.
Meanwhile behavioral targeters are testing demographics and creating algorithms to determine consumer interests and speak to a person’s depth to give them an element of choice. Companies like ContextWeb target based on content. Instead of interpreting CNN as a news site, it breaks it down into retirement, personal finance, education — it’s no longer a one-dimensional perception of the site. And that precision helps to refine the algorithm.
To some, behavioral targeting seems like an invasion of privacy, but this seems to be less of a priority among millennials, who tend to be more accepting of behavioral targeting than their Boomer counterparts. They’re used to living their lives out loud. Behavioral targeters can take advantage of the wealth of consumer information broadcast over social media, learning tweet by tweet about the audience it’s trying to reach.
Where is it inaccurate? What if a family of four shares a desktop computer? How does the targeter know the difference between the family members and their widely varied interests? Well, BT isn’t perfect. It relies on laptops, and soon iPhones, Androids, and iPads for the crux of its data. Give it time – soon we won’t even have to type search criteria into Google!
What do you think? Is behavioral targeting an invasion of privacy? Is it creepy, or smart marketing? What has your personal experience been, as a consumer or marketing company? Share your thoughts by commenting below, or posting on our Facebook page!
Optimizing a Website for Mobile
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing on June 8th, 2011
Many people browse the web with a mobile device. How should you prepare your website for mobile users?
Mobile browsers are growing rapidly. I don’t know about you, but when I attempt to view a website on my smartphone and it won’t load because it’s not optimized for mobile, I lose interest in that company or service very rapidly!
We are in a now society, and if you can’t get answers where you are exactly when you need them (who is going to remember to go home and “look it up later”?) the desire to use that product or service goes out the window as fast as it came.
So how do you optimize your website for this society of new users? Here are some general rules to get you started:
How will you allow mobile users to access your page?
There are several options ranging from automatic generation of mobile pages under the same URL’s to having dedicated mobile pages or special subdomains for mobile devices. The way you want to deal with these pages impacts the way you design them.
Using the same URL for both the mobile and desktop version has great benefits, such as the URL does not matter: people might enter a URL by hand or from a link from another website. Basically all you have to do is simplify your content based on the clients’ capabilities. Can you do this with an extremely complex site, however? This option may leave you limited.
One of the most important things to remember is that the information needs of mobile users is generally very different. A desktop user many times is casually browsing for information, while a mobile user is more likely need context specific answers (requiring them to act immediately).
Adding a subdomain (mobile.yourcompany.com) is another way of opening your website for mobile users. This works if you want to deliver specific content to mobile users only.
Mobile Content
When planning content for your mobile pages, remember that most people are in transit or busy with other activities while browsing your site. You should steer clear of all categories that are not important for people that are mobile. If it is not solving a pressing problem it should not be on your mobile site.
Skip: technical details of a product
Leave: basic features, amount in stock, and price
Skip: company history and adherence to guidelines
Leave: what services your company provides
Skip: your mission statement and stock information
Leave: time-sensitive information (when is the next showing?)
You can always direct people to go to the desktop version of your site if they need more information.
What features do you look for in a mobile website? How has your company approached the solution? Tell us by commenting below or on our Facebook page – we’d love to hear your ideas!
