Most people don’t get married after the first date. It takes time to build a trustworthy relationship.
Traditional marketing and advertising still works. However, companies who are aware they need to strengthen their brands through social media relationships with consumers are more likely to prosper no matter what we hear on the news about the economy.
So, exactly what is social media? If you don’t know what social media is, consider this your first date.
Facebook is the current network of choice for most people with over 250 million active users. Facebook has tools in place that lets you hone in on target demographics of the people you want to reach. Get involved by setting up a personal page then a page or group for your company. Do you have a Facebook page?
Twitter is good for is keeping people informed and establishing fun and interesting relationships between current or potential clients and your brand by creating links to your website or other social media sites. Don’t plug your products and services with every tweet. Keep it fun and informative. Are you tweeting yet?
Not having a vision means that there’s plenty of room for whining, for infighting and for dissolution.
A solid vision keeps everyone on track; chaos takes over wherever the vision lapses. Having a vision not only points everyone in the same direction, it also creates motion.
While motion in any direction is often better than no motion at all, motion with vision creates synergy. Synergy inspires a team to work together to produce an overall better result than working individually.
Marketing has traditionally focused on the Four Ps – Pricing, Product, Promotion, and Place.
But in today’s demanding environment, marketers need to be focused on an additional set of letters – three Os and an I: Online, Offline, Outbound, and Inbound.
These letters represent new channels for marketing and new challenges for coordination, management, and measurement.
If you’re not online and generating inbound traffic, you might find your business offline and outbound for failure.
Are you ready for the three Os and the I? Ready or not, they’re here.
If you are finally ready to get serious about social media, here are four key steps to help you develop an effective strategy:
Step 1: Assess your findability. Where do your customers go online when they’re looking for your product category? Go there and see if you can find you.
Step 2: Establish credibility. It is of the utmost importance to establish trust and credibility in social media. If you talk about how your company or brand is the best, you’ll fail at both. Just like a real conversation, you should provide value and expertise, be transparent and identify yourself as a representative of the brand. Your goal should be to participate in the conversation and provide a credible viewpoint.
Step 3: Enhance reality. This is your opportunity to be an expert where you are an expert… not in a boastful way… in a knowledgeable way that can truly help others. Being an expert, without coming across as an expert, will go a long way to enhancing the reality of your brand image in social media.
Step 4: Measure Impeccability. Monitor your online reputation. Gauge your online reputation by utilizing website analytics tools to measure visitors’ time on your site, bounce rate and referring traffic data. Be sure to establish a baseline at the beginning of each social media campaign so you can accurately measure results.
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There’s a lot more to social media than merely creating a Facebook page. Social media offers tremendous opportunity. So, are you dating social media or are you ready to get married? Those who get serious with social media will derive serious value from it. It’s that simple.
Perception is reality…Â a direct mail piece is your target customers’ perception of your business.
Your mail piece is competing for the attention of EVERYTHING ELSE that arrives in the mailbox with it.
You need a quality direct mail piece — a mail piece that stands out in this marketing medium. Instead of “how cheap can I send this?” instead ask yourself, “How much do I need to spend to get my mail piece to the top of the stack?”
With the decrease in marketers sending out direct mail, right now is the perfect time to land in mail boxes with your mail piece.
Brand relationships are hard work… especially in this competitive economy.
That means you can’t just let your brand sit around on the couch all day eating snacks and watching movies.
Shape up! Get up on that metaphorical treadmill and keep your brand in shape by keeping up with the latest marketing trends and embracing the new wave of social media. It’s time to embrace ideas that will keep your brand near and dear to the hearts and minds of your prospects.
Please… if you don’t get help with your brand at YourAdTeam, get help somewhere.
More and more people are relying on the Internet and Wireless Devices for information about products and services.
Cell phone penetration in the world now exceeds that of the internet. In 2009, about 80% of the world’s population had mobile phone coverage. This year, cell phone coverage in the world is expected to hit and 90%.
Over 300 million mobile subscribers in North America in 2009.
75% say ‘text messaging’ is the most important feature.
In 13-44 aged cell phone users, text messaging outnumbers talking.
Over 70% of subscribers use text messaging.
Texting is used 7 times more than mobile web and mobile search.
It’s time to make Mobile Text Marketing a stronger part of your company’s marketing approach.
Mobile text marketing levels the playing field for big business vs. small business.
And best of all…it is paperless!
Check out www.HungerMagnet.com to see how their unique approach to mobile text marketing can help you today. Go Text Yourself!
Wikipedia defines personal branding as “the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands”. Furthermore, the personal branding concept suggests that success comes from self-packaging, leading to an “indelible impression that is uniquely distinguishable”.
The good news — and it is largely good news — is that everyone has a chance to stand out. Everyone has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills. Everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark.
People know what to expect when they see a personal brand, and oftentimes, the brand is a promise of the value they’ll receive. Therefore, it is critical that you take the time to understand the importance of branding for your business.
When it comes to the perfect pitch, sometimes less is more. Let’s face it, most of the purchases we make happen because we like the company we’re dealing with (i.e., we know the owner, trust the brand, identify with the company’s values or innovative products, etc.), rather than because we feel sorry for them during a recession. People buy out of their own self-interest or because they respect the brand’s past successes.
Well, the same is true for your clients, too. So, why do you spend countless attempts at bombarding them with desperation marketing? Instead, try taking a few weeks to craft the perfect pitch and use constructive feedback from friends to make it shorter and more powerful.
(This information adapted from David Seaman’s article “Ditch Your Desperation Marketing” on www.entrepreneur.com.)
Sampling is a marketing technique that, when done correctly, can benefit your company. One reason for this is that sampling overcomes fear of the unknown.
In fact, entrepreneur.com recently summed up the value of product sampling by stating that
“when people are uncertain about what something will cost, what the customer-business relationship will be like, or what they’ll get in return for their time and money, they do nothing, or they revert to a familiar solution even if it’s less than ideal”.
They also point out that
“samples lead people past their hesitation. It’s why department stores have dressing rooms, auto dealers offer test drives, software companies give limited-service free access, media outlets offer complementary subscriptions, and museums host free-admission days. ‘Try it’, they’re basically saying, ‘you’ll like it’.”
