Davis Advertising

CRM/Marketing Automation vs Traditional Marketing

2012-01-26T07:28:00.000-08:00

CRM. Marketing Automation. Campaigns. Analytics. Integrated. Innovative.

There, did I drop enough buzzwords on you at once?

For those wondering what I’m talking about, I’m talking about keeping track of your customers, and setting up marketing items that target your leads at specific timed intervals and after customer initiated events. In other words,this is about communicating with your customers in a way so you remain relevant to them, and to offer them products or services when they need them.

First, I’ll break down a couple of the words I listed above, for those that don’t know what they mean. A CRM is a Customer Relationship Management (usually followed by the word software or system). Basically, it’s like a Rolodex of information regarding your past or potential customers, with as much information as you can fit. It is edited every time a customer makes a connection with your company, and tries to maintain a grasp on where he or she is in the purchase cycle. Marketing Automation is a system that reaches out to your customer or potential lead based on parameters that are inputted into it, (hopefully from some CRM). These are two different systems, that when paired together work really well. A campaign is based on what you want to advertise. It has a start, middle, and end, based on the intended outcome. Several campaigns can run at the same time.

Okay, so now that we went over the definitions, we can focus on the actual business use. The easiest way to wrap your head around this to think about a more traditional marketing avenue first, like a print ad in a magazine. When you put an ad in a magazine, you are aiming at anyone who reads that magazine. Your creative needs to be attractive to the demographic of the magazine subscription base. It’s great for attracting brand new customers.

Now, an advertisement generated by a Marketing Automation tool tied to a CRM is going to look at specific groups of customers, and target them based on an experience they had. So, for example, you are running a furniture store. An advertisement from a system like this would send an email out to customers who recently bought a couch, and offer them a discount on a matching recliner. Or, if you ran a flower shop, it would send you a reminder to buy your Valentine’s flowers in advance, promoting a specific product based on the customer’s last purchase. It is a personalized, direct ad sent only to customers that you know. One that allows you to diagnose the effectiveness by using analytics based on real numbers.

Of the two, the more traditional advertisement, in this case, the magazine ad, is hoping to attract business based on a whimsical need. You hope that the person reading the ad will need your product or service at that moment, and take advantage of the offer. A CRM ad is targeting a customer that you are pretty sure needs some level of service, based on past experience with that customer. It is much easier to calculate an ROI (return on investment) on this type of marketing.

Both targeted ads and open invitation style ads are extremely important, and Davis Advertising can help you with both. We have the creative team to create great design and copy, as well as the technical skills to program an automated system based on your own customer base. We can provide targeted marketing for those that could be in your customer base, or market to your past customers. If you don’t have a system in place, call today

Media Buying Agencies Are Dead

2012-01-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

According to an article in today’s Business Insider, the traditional media buying agency is dead.

Okay, so maybe that’s an overstatement, but we are glad to hear that the tides are changing back to a customer centric point of view, driven by poignant creative direction and an emphasis on relationships. The savings that occur due to aggregated buying power are being eaten up by commissions, and due to elevated costs, there has been a decreased funding of quality content. When the emphasis is on buying media at the lowest prices, the concerns typically shift to focusing solely with reaching the highest level of potential eyes, instead of reaching the RIGHT eyes. The creative agency targets your potential customer, focusing on several different types of media instead of simply one or two, and uses analytics that focus on real impressions rather than simple page loads or run times.

This means, in our humble opinion, that the agency of the future is an agency that focuses on values of the past, like building solid relationships between the brand and the customer. One that uses a deeply integrated approach to blend all of the different types of media to provide a holistic experience for the customer, and one that the customer can interact with on many different levels. The agency of the future uses all of the tools of the future to accomplish all of the goals of the past, because it understands that the technology is simply a way of connecting with people on a personal, individual level.

Welcome back.

Driving Through the Funnel - Landing Pages

2012-01-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

We’ve made mention of building landing pages on several occasions. As a quick reminder, a landing page is simply a separate web page that customers are directed to in order to complete a contact form in exchange for additional information or savings. Today, we discuss the key factors that make landing pages successful, and how to quickly create them.

As far as design elements go, your primary branding message needs to carry through. I recently loaded a landing page that looked completely different from the traditional website, and I thought I was in the wrong place. Make sure that for returning customers, the landing page has similar color schemes, logo positioning, and font choice that the customer is familiar with on your website.

If you’ve driven customers to this landing page, it is important to keep them moving through the funnel, without the options to detour. Therefore, make sure your traditional navigation tools are not visible. You don’t want someone accidentally falling out of the landing page, and continuing onto your traditional site instead. A landing page must be streamlined to heighten only the special deal it was written to promote, not act as a secondary website.

Excellent “Thank-You” pages are crucial to sharing. If your customer likes what you’re offering, and has provided you with contact information, there is a better chance for anyone to share your offer with others. Therefore, it is important that your “thank you” page easily allows for sharing. It is important to note that you don’t want customers to actually SHARE your thank you page. The last thing you want is for people to be able to go around your funnel.

One of the areas that many have trouble with is figuring out what to put on the form. We hear, “What should we ask for? How much is too much?” a lot. The answer is, the minimum you can to manage the level of communication you are looking for. For example, if you are targeting a specific demographic, you need to ask if the potential customer is a member of said demographic. If you are looking to get an email conversation going, asking the customer for the physical mailing address would fall into the “Too much” column. A landing page is great for finding future information, so as to better direct market to customers that have filled out information, but do not try to get every single item of information from one landing page.

Can you tie into your landing page permissions and API keys rather than filling out forms all the time? As a customer, if I have the ability to simply click, “Use Facebook Login” rather than filling out a long form, I’m going to take it every time. There’s a chance that later on, the customer may take away that permission, but that is irrelevant. Once you have the contact information in your database, you own it. Therefore, I strongly recommend using the Authentication from Facebook as an option to filling out form after form.

Don’t forget, after customers fills out the form, they are looking for excellent content. Content is still king! Landing pages that provide nothing but a form, or that do not provide the customer a benefit, will not collect customer information well, and can turn people away from your brand.

The Power of Texting

2012-01-06T09:20:00.000-08:00

Smartphone users hear a lot of different rings, beeps, blips, etc. There’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, personal email(s), work email(s), texts, picture messaging, chat clients, app alerts,the list goes on and on. And there’s phone calls, less we forget the prime use of the device... That means these wonderful devices are alerting the user a lot, and it is up to the user to define a hierarchy of the order of importance for each type of notification. Imagine each different type of alert had a completely different sound. Which, out of all of these, would you think ranks highest with most users?

My “guess” is text messaging. It is the easiest to read, and respond to. It only comes from people that actually have your phone number. They are typically from people that you know, and have regular dialogues with. Plus, it’s not exclusive to smart phone users, as everyone can get text on their phone. This “guess” is based on the fact that text messages have an astounding open rate of 97%. The average email open rate is around 20%.

Sufficed to say, Text messaging rules the roost, when it comes to communication methods.

What does this mean for marketers? It means that you’d better start texting! Here are some rules and suggestions.

Don’t extend past the 160 character limit. If your offer extends beyond one message, it’s too complicated for a text message.
Make the offer good. You are making an offer via a more personal form of communication, and if the offer isn’t good, you can actually harm a relationship.
Remember to offer an “unsubscribe” message. You can offer an unsubscribe message for 28 characters a message (reply "stop" to unsubscribe.)
Don’t overdo it. I recommend against texting more than once a week. You don’t want to overextend your welcome.
Short links are your friends. Need to bring people off the text message? Use a short link to bring mobile users to a mobile landing page, and make sure that traditional desktop users that enter the short code into a traditional browser have a pleasant experience as well.
Don’t forget calls to action! Interaction is key. If the person receiving the text message wants to call right away, or respond with some form of answer, you’ve been effective. Read and delete messages are not memorable, and you’ll receive a lot more “Unsubscribe” or “Stop” messages if there is no call to action.
Everyone likes games, and everyone likes winning. Set up some contests, random drawings, and games, like trivia, with winners being awarded some prize. Signing up for a newsletter is much more fun if I can win an iPad when I do!

Have any suggestions or rules of your own? Leave them in the comment section below!

Are you in Engineering or Marketing?

2011-12-27T12:13:00.000-08:00

How well do you know your product? Can you describe in perfect technical detail the full operation of your product, and can you provide the complete history of both your company and your product? Could you write the definitive book regarding every small change that has occurred over the lifespan of your company or product? If I wanted to find the absolute expert regarding your product, would your name come up first in a Google search, with your picture, and you smiling and waving?

Congratulations, you are an engineer. If your name tag or business card says, “Marketing”, you may be in trouble.

There’s nothing wrong with solid product knowledge. The last thing any company needs is poorly informed sales professionals, that cannot answer some level of technical questions that may arise, without picking up the phone and calling the home office... However, there’s only one person that is so deeply interested in your product that they can tell you every single small detail regarding it, and that’s usually the engineer that designed it. Salespeople, and marketing campaigns, occasionally fail because they forget that the ability to describe every detail of the product does not make a successful sales pitch.

When we become experts in the field, we sometimes forget that our target audience isn’t an expert. The customer is looking to the business to help them solve a problem or fill a need. Chances are, they seriously don’t care about every small detail, seeing as these minor details probably have very little to do with solving the customer’s problem or filling the customer’s needs.

It is the role of a sales person, and a marketing campaign, to inform the customer that your product can best solve their problems or fill their needs, without getting bogged down in the minor details. In one on one sales, this approach is easy; you simply say, “How can I help you?”, listen to the problem, and provide answers that can solve that customer’s needs. The more questions that the sales professional asks, the better they can answer to the customer’s individual needs. When you are working on an advertising campaign, you don’t have the one person that you can turn to and say, “How can I help you?” You have to assume you know the question. The trick is answering the right question, without it being asked of you.

Successful marketing provides brand identity, showcases the product or company as the best solution to the unasked question, and does so in a way that is memorable to the target audience. If your message is simply about brand identity and being memorable, you have only partially completed the overall goal. Spend some time finding out what the unasked questions are. Mine your social media to learn these questions. Ask your customers in one on one situations for their answers.

Treat your engineers well, since they provide your product. Just remember, don’t send them out into the field to do all of your sales work, too.

True Mobile Site Versus a Mobile Face-lift

2011-12-19T06:03:00.000-08:00

I read a lot of marketing blogs, and recently, I’ve noticed a huge increase in something we’ve been talking about for awhile: Mobile Websites. All the stats point to people accessing websites on mobile more often than on desktops by 2013, and so the race is on to get your site redone. The research I’ve either done or read shows that around 25% of websites are optimized for mobile.

The question that I hear most often is, “Do I need a completely different website, or can I just put in new code that changes my page so it looks better on a mobile?” Is a mobile website simply a carbon copy of your traditional website, that simply loads faster by stripping out the glitz and glamor? Does it need to cut out certain features, and limit your website to a few pages? If that’s your goal, then chances are, you can create a mobile page for short dollars. If your goal is to simply change the look of your site so that it can load on a mobile phone without having to wait forever, and to avoid the pinch/drag/zoom nightmare that is trying to fit 17 inch displays onto a 4 inch screen, then sure, just reformat your CSS and you’re well on your way.

In my opinion, I would assume that the reason a customer goes to a mobile website versus going to a desktop version is not simply because the only device handy is said mobile. I think a mobile user is looking for something a little different. A mobile user’s goal is to get off of your website as quickly as possible, and still accomplish the reason for visiting in the first place. They aren’t typically there to browse.

For example, let’s look at a pizza place. If I’m sitting at my desktop, there’s a good chance I want to look at a menu, figure out what I want, and then pick up the phone and call. Ordering online is neat, but I don’t want to have to fill out 12 different pages of forms, especially if I’m planning on paying cash. However, if I’m on my mobile, and I’m looking at the menu, then there’s a good chance I’d find it convenient if I could simply check off some boxes, and be told it’ll be ready in 15 minutes. I’m already on the phone, since most data packages don’t allow for web surfing and phone use at the same time. Also, I don’t like having to figure out the perfect angle that I can hold the phone, talk into it, and read the screen, all while listening to you read back the order, etc. My arm only bends in so many different places, and unless you have eyes like a gecko, you’re not reading the webpage, holding the phone to your ear and mouth, and carrying on a conversation where details matter.

If your website’s main purpose is to sell products online, you need to make sure that it is easy to sell on your mobile device. Many times, the store software that works great on a desktop platform does not translate well to mobile. Avoiding extra steps is critical for mobile users. Setting up stores that can tap into other existing data, such as tying into the Facebook API, enables you to capture a lot of the user information, without forcing the customer to fill out a long login form.

A mobile website should be high on your list of things to get working for marketing purposes. Before deciding how you want to create your page, spend some quality time figuring out what type of mobile site would benefit your customer the best.

Can you really fix my problem at a lower cost?

2011-12-08T13:10:00.001-08:00

Our answer is yes. Over the course of the past 50 years, the advertising industry has transformed to encompass all new media that fall under the advertising umbrella. If you recently haven’t reviewed your marketing strategies and costs when working with an agency, you should. You might be losing a fortune.

I read an article today by a former head of creative at a major ad agency that read how he had witnessed a large amount of frustration by Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) caused by how their agencies charge for creative and account services. The author says he had an epiphany and that maybe charging by the FTE (full time employee) should be a thing of the past. He states, “the fact that agencies charge more money when they put more people (or say they do) onto a project,” is wrong. No kidding.

I have always felt that the standard advertising agency model he wrote about is broken. In this model, ultimately agencies are compensated greater when deadlines are not met or only sub-par work is delivered. I’ll explain.

Let’s say that your agency presents you concepts for a new campaign. Its employees have been working on storyboards, scripts and ads for weeks while billing you for the time. You take a look and see nothing you like and say to the agency, “I need to see more concepts.”

If the agency uses this standard model, ultimately, it just hit the lottery. Now it can go back and create additional campaigns and of course bill you more money. If the agency presented you great campaigns in the first presentation they lose potential income. The agency is being rewarded for delivering inferior work.

I’ve always wondered why CMOs put up with type of agency model.

Now you’re probably saying, “This isn’t the relationship I have with my agency. I would never agree to this type of arrangement.”

The truth is you might have a similar type of relationship but don’t realize you do. Are your invoices always much higher than the initial quote? Are hidden fees popping up each month? If you answered yes, let me tell you how Davis Advertising can help.

At Davis we can operate using a fixed pricing model to help businesses of any size. This model has our clients pay a locked-in price or a pre-determined monthly fee (not retainer) that covers all required services for the completion of a project or campaign. This fixed pricing model would penalize us for creating campaigns that were not accepted by our clients at the first presentation. At Davis Advertising, if our first presentation is not great we will not be compensated for future concepts. Clients are invoiced only once we get it right. Not only does this method make us work more efficiently, this method is fairer to our clients and saves them time. So when you ask your agency if it can fix your problems and save you money be sure to also ask which model is used.

By Andy Davis

Defining Customer Expectations

2011-12-06T07:31:00.001-08:00

There are certain phrases that are overused all of the time. I remember sitting in a meeting, getting ready to hear about innovative, out-of-the-box ways to exceed customer expectations, and I waited to see what it is, with almost baited breath. The answer? A coupon. OH MY! Yup, you blew away the customer with that!

“Exceeding Customer Expectations” is a great idea. It’s a phrase often times mentioned in staff meetings, to rally a sales force before a big event, or in board meetings prior to a new campaign launch. Unfortunately, it is most often used as a euphemism for giving good service. This more common usage has turned the phrase into a cliche, and it’s time for us to take this phrase back. In order turn this motto into a functional call to action, we need to re-examine how and why we use it.

Before you can exceed customer expectations, you should probably try to figure out what the customer expects. Of course, you can go with the old generic standbys, like “The customer expects great service!” or “The customer expects a friendly atmosphere!” The problem with these general, all encompassing “Expectations” is that they are idealistic. It’s hard to fix real shortcomings with idealistic, sweeping statements.

Realistically speaking, a customer may expect to be able to walk into a store, pick up an item, and pay for it in cash, without having to provide the customer’s email address, zip code, and or telephone number to complete the transaction. Perhaps a customer’s expectation is to schedule an appointment at 2:30 and the services starts at 2:30. I think it is a reasonable expectation for a customer to be able to complete a sentence before the sales associate interrupts with a question.

So, before you can exceed expectations, you need to be able to meet them. The only way to meet them is to drill down, ask the right questions, and think like a customer. When I was training sales associates, I always made the new employees go mystery shop elsewhere, to see the purchase experience from our competition, and see what it felt like to be a customer. It is impossible to meet a customer’s experience without knowing the possible frustration firsthand that they may feel.

Once you’ve met the customer expectations, then, and only then, can you try to exceed them.

For market research into what your customer expects, and for an analytic approach to creating better marketing and advertising, contact us today.

8 in 10 Connect to Brands on Facebook

2011-11-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

Edison Research and Arbitron found that 80% of US social network users preferred to connect with brands through Facebook. Twitter is tied with "Don't know" for a very distant second place.

We'll revisit this data in a few months when we know more about Google+ and the effect it will have on the customer/brand relationship. But, for now, it's fairly clear where brands should continue to focus.

Consumers Expect Something for "Like"

2011-11-17T09:08:00.000-08:00

According to ExactTarget, 58% of Facebook likers expect both access to exclusive content, events or sales, and discounts or promotions through Facebook. Only 37% do not expect anything to happen.

What does all of this data mean? In short, it means that the "If you build it, they will come" mentality only works in the movies. Just as it is with every other medium, you need to give visitors a reason to engage with you.

What exclusive content are you providing to your likers?

Worcester Center for Crafts Holiday Festival

2011-11-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

Davis Advertising has assisted the Worcester Center for Crafts over the years on a number of annual campaigns to deliver direct mail, radio spots, print ads, billboards, posters and eblasts to invite new and existing students alike to take courses or one-night workshops in a variety of media. Whether it is a pottery course in the original location at 25 Sagamore Road, or a glass-blowing class at the glass studio at 35 B New Street, the WCC is open year-round for students of all levels.

Together again, Davis Advertisingand the Worcester Center for Crafts have delivered the 2011 Festival of Craftscampaign. Above, here's one piece of artwork Davis created. This annual event takes place on Friday, November 25 to kickoff the holiday shopping season. Thisfestival runs through Sunday, November 27.

Brand Pages come to Google+

2011-11-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

As we’ve mentioned in the past, Google Plus is a wonderful new social media channel, that has attracted around 50 million people since it’s inception back in June. It came out of Beta, and became open to everyone in September. Until Monday, November 7th, only individual users were allowed, and businesses couldn’t form a page, as they can on Facebook. Google politely asked businesses to wait, and many obliged. By enforcing their Real names only policy, many small businesses that tried to cheat the system were bounced from G+, as were some notable personalities that have functioned under pseudonyms on other sites.

All that has changed.

Google officially welcomed businesses to the Google Plus universe on Monday, November 7th, 2011. This was done in a two step process, and only a couple of businesses that had a heads up were allowed initially (Only top tier business, like, say, The Muppets!) in order to make sure that the services were set up in place correctly.

Online marketers rejoiced, and then many began to build their G+ pages (See ours, click here!), and pretty much mirror their Facebook pages. They brought over their image galleries, links to YouTube, etc. They set up their company information, and posted some public welcome messages, and tried to bring their Facebook followers over.

The question we are asking today is, “Should companies create a separate strategy for Google+?”

With the ability to set up hangouts, and to set up Circles to share information with, should company pages focus more on the type of communication they are trying to accomplish? Is your company planning on mirroring your Facebook page on Google +, or have you begun to think of different ways to engage with your customers and employees?

Please give us your opinions below. Should your company be on Google +, and should it have the same strategy as Facebook and Twitter, or are you hoping to provide a completely different experience?

We have some definite opinions, but are looking to see what you all think first, before voicing ours.

Worcester Academy's International Students

2011-11-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

As a school rich in tradition and focused on excellence, Worcester Academy is known as a premiere learning institution. The knowledge and experience that the students receive prepare them for college and life in the future. Worcester Academy pulls from a pool of local, national and international students who strive to make a positive impact in the world around them.

With that in mind, Worcester Academy came to Davis wanting to make an impact with their open house materials, as well as their international brochures. Davis Advertising provided them with a comprehensive strategy that included direct mail, web banners and email blasts, PPC, print and signage.

A tri-fold brochure for International Students.

Sign for Open House

For more images from this campaign, please click here.

How's your newsletter?

2011-10-31T05:35:00.000-07:00

One aspect of marketing that has become more popular is either an email or printed newsletter, that is published monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, or annually. The goals of a newsletter are pretty straight forward:

Create customer retention and brand loyalty.
Demonstrate your expertise in the field, and “lightly” educate your customers.
Keep your company profile in the customer’s mind.
Gain sales, whether immediate or long term.

Although the goals are obvious, the necessary steps to achieving them are often times nebulous. A newsletter is more than a simple list of articles stating what your company has done recently. In order to fully meet all of the objectives of a successful newsletter, you need to focus on both the content and the delivery.

We’ll begin with the content. Simply stating the accomplishments of the company, or discussing every new product that has been developed, is only going to accomplish the first part of goal #2. And let’s face it, how many of your customers want to become experts in your field? You need to demonstrate your expertise, not make your customers experts. Therefore, a newsletter filled with technical jargon, that tries to make every reader fully understand every aspect of the business, is probably going to fail.

In order to generate usable content, the focus must be on the customer, not on the products, or even on your business. If you think of your newsletter as an actual periodical or newspaper, you begin to see the entire picture. Consider the front of any magazine you have ever seen. The articles listed are about how the reader can change their life. “10 Great New Widgets That Will Improve Your Life!” “How Starlet X Lost 50 Pounds in a Week!” These articles are meant to help the reader in some way. They are more than simply product descriptions.

The tricky part is making sure it does not come across as a sales pitch. If you are truly focused on the customer, you should be okay.

In addition to your product, your newsletter should try to connect with the reader on a personal or emotional level. Does your company do good things for the community? Include an article about that. Once again, this doesn’t mean you should be generating a report on how wonderful you are. As an example, if your company recently gave money to a school, you could talk about the wonderful improvements made to the school. You don’t need to emphasize that they could do this based on your charitable donations; the fact that you are publishing the news alone tends to point that out.

Newsletters can also focus some attention on the community in general. Has a local sports team done something wonderful recently? Make mention. Has a new restaurant opened in town, that you enjoy? Write them a review. Newsletters can positively focus on other local events, that will also lend readability to your publication and give your readers something they will enjoy reading.

As far as delivery goes, your focus needs to be ease of use. For emailed newsletters, they must be accessible to all readers. Focusing your attention on clean coding, proper email etiquette, including proper titling, unsubscribe options, etc. It should be viewable as a website in addition to an email, for those who are using email services that are more restrictive. The ability to download the email as a file, and be read offline, is an additional feature. For more on email distribution, click here.

In summary, your newsletter needs to be enjoyable to read. No one outside of your company wants to read a book about your company. However, if 50% of your newsletter is soft sales on your products, and 50% of your newsletter focuses on the community and things that will most likely interest your customer, based on your customer demographic, the chances of your newsletter being deleted or thrown away without being viewed is much lower.

The Spice(s) of Life

2011-10-26T05:02:00.000-07:00

I recently started a new exercise regime, along with a new diet. Have you read some of the diets that are out there right now? I came across one that is based on chocolate cake! It begins with what they called “Prep Week”, and all you eat, for a straight week, is chocolate cake. Then the real diet starts. Luckily, because by the end of that first week, you feel so sick, the thought of eating chocolate cake turns your stomach, and the act of actually eating it is sickening. Your body and your taste buds rejoice at the healthy varieties of foods. Never again will a plain salad taste so good!

I’m not going to go on that diet. It was interesting to read, however, and full of psychological reasons why it works, and how it keeps you off of junk food for a while.

Think for a moment about your marketing style, and current advertising structure. How often do you serve the same chocolate cake? Week in and week out, are you simply serving up the same exact ads, and hoping that your customer’s sweet tooth is still excited to see it?

If variety is the spice of life, perhaps your marketing needs a little spicing up.

One reason for adding in variety is to try and capture different customers. Geiko has its little lizard, and he tells you all about how 15 minutes can save you 15%. The company has a caveman who finds it insulting when you use him as the basis of comparing ease of use to his level of sophistication. Who can forget the man asking a rhetorical question that gets answered in another set of commercials, with bears doing what they do in the woods, and the little piggy screaming in the backseat on his way home. Or perhaps you remember the stack of money with the googly eyes fondly... There is a variety of style, which can potentially reach everyone. The brand message is not getting placed in stale commercials.

Of course, you need to keep the actual brand messaging the same every time. You don’t want to completely reinvent your company’s image every time you put out a new commercial. The rest of the ad should have content variations. This will allow you to continue to reach customers, and not just become white noise. The more out of the box the commercial, the more likely it can generate a buzz. Changing the buzz, in order to keep your customers talking about you, is the goal of advertising.

Even if your ad is brilliant, it needs to be relaxed for a while. I was pleased to see a Wendy’s commercial that features a man buying a retro t-shirt, which reads, “Where’s the beef?” Random people then read his shirt aloud as he walks down the street. I wouldn’t have been excited, and probably wouldn’t have noticed, if they hadn’t stopped this ad for 20 years. I can’t tell you what the last thing the Energizer bunny did, since he hasn’t changed his ways in a couple of decades.

The moral of the article is, no matter how great your current ad campaign is, let it go. Get something new. If it was truly great, let it rest, and see what happens if you re-launch in a couple of years. Don’t simply serve chocolate cake every day for the rest of your business life. Sometimes, a little raspberry sorbet will hit the spot, instead.

And sometimes, the bland salad tastes great, after eating just junk for a week straight. Although the jury is still out on that one...

Written by Chris Gregoire

Defining Great Customer Service

2011-10-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

We could get out a dictionary, or check out our friends over at Wikipedia, and see what they think Customer Service is, but we think that it would be more fun to see what you think it is. We took a quick poll, and came up with a few of possible definitions:

Great Customer service is best described as “The Customer is always Right!” Do what the customer wants.
Doing what is best for the customer, no matter what. Sometimes, the customer is wrong, but letting them fail, just so you can say, “Well, we did what you told us to” is poor customer service.
Be available to your customer whenever the customer needs you. Setting up call centers, answering email requests at any hour of the day, etc.

Of course, great customer service can vary, depending on the industry. What is considered great service in the restaurant industry may not be considered great service in the construction field.

In order to market yourself to a customer base, you need to provide for the new and existing customer base excellent service. Otherwise, your marketing attempts will fall on deaf ears.

Today, we’re looking for your answer. How would you describe “Great Customer Service”?

You Don't Sell In a Vacuum

2011-10-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

The title is obvious, right? You don’t sell in a vacuum. You have to pay attention to what your customers want, what’s going on in society right now, and what the trends are. Of course you must pay attention to seasonal changes, holiday schedules, and change accordingly. You must watch your competition, and make sure that if they are offering a sale or discount, you know what they are doing, so you can remain competitive. All of this is common sense.

The point of this article is to watch your third parties. Often times, we get so wrapped up in what we are doing versus our direct competition, that we forget that there are other businesses that are related to us, that are not really our direct competition, that can either adversely or positively affect our business.

My wife wants to “re-do” our dining room. Maybe I will get lucky, and it means she simply wants to paint it a different color. I like the idea of us spending only $30 on paint and rollers to “re-do” it ourselves... However, there’s a better chance that she wants to do some more expensive upgrades. Where to start? There’s two major changes she could want us to start with: the floor, or the furniture.

Does a furniture store consider a flooring business to be competition? Perhaps they should. They are both competing for the same dollar. As a customer, if I am on a limited budget, I must decide what to start with first. If I find a couch in my price range, that matches my existing carpet, the furniture store wins. If I find a carpet that accentuates my existing furniture, and changes the dynamic of the room, then maybe I’m done with just the floor...

We’ll leave my old dining room alone for a minute, and return back to the overall discussion. If businesses start to look not at who their direct competition is, but rather what businesses could have a positive or negative effect on the company income, there may be a way of creating relationships that would benefit both businesses. Those third party businesses, that don’t directly compete against you product for product, or service for service, could possibly be costing you business. Rather than trying to compete with them, if you had a symbiotic relationship, and could do some cross promotion, there’s a strong possibility of increasing your customer base, and being mutually beneficial.

Thinking about my dining room again, if we were to find out that we could save an additional 25% on the furniture from Merchant X if we buys the new flooring from Merchant Y, there’s a strong chance that we are going to spend more money overall. The two businesses win, and the customers win.

This type of marketing strategy can be hard to start. Networking may not be your thing. Work with your marketing team to figure out how to best begin these commensal business relationships.

Written by Chris Gregoire

SEO, Reviews, QR Codes, and other terms that your marketing department likes.

2011-10-04T05:13:00.000-07:00

Today’s free advice has to do with improving your search engine results. There’s a whole lot of things that go into how well your website is optimized for search engines, which is why there is a whole field of marketing devoted to helping your website achieve higher results. We’re going to focus on one piece of this today. One that your business needs for non-SEO reasons as well.

Take this QR code. If you scan it, it will bring your phone to a review for Davis Advertising. Now, there’s several different places we could review your business. We could have created a QR for Yelp, (Although Yelp doesn’t allow for mobile reviews, unless you go to a non-optimized site.) The problem with directing a customer to one of these specialty review sites is that in order for the customer to leave a review, the customer needs to be logged into that specific site. As not all customers are members on review sites, the odds of the customer getting through a review for you, and then taking the time to sign up to the service to actually leave the review, are slim.

That’s what makes the QR code above perfect. It asks the customer (you, if you scan it!) to leave a review on Google Places. Google scrapes other sites to get reviews, but also allows for customers to review directly on the Google Places page. With more than 50% of the smartphones sold being Android devices, and with many non-Android devices still being signed into at least one Google service, the chances are very high that the customer that scans this QR is already logged in as a Google User. That means no annoying login screens, or sign-up screens. It’s as simple as, click the number of stars, write the review, and get on with your life!

As we’ve discussed previously, word of mouth reviews are now living in your social media sites. Increasing the number of reviews that show up when customers are searching for your type of business increases the likelihood that new people will do business with you. On top of the fact that people do more business with existing, established businesses that have reviews about them, Google gives higher precedence to pages that have reviews. Active reviews increase your SEO, and make your website stand out more.

So, by using a QR code like the one found above, you can:

Increase your SEO.
Add reviews for your future customers.
Show existing customers you care about what they think.
Reach a more technology driven demographic.

For help creating your custom Google Review QR code, like the one above, contact us.

Business Social Media Policy (suggestions)

2011-09-30T05:17:00.000-07:00

We’ve talked about social media business policy in the past, and how having a poorly written social media protocol can hinder your business. Today, we’ll be a little more specific on some of our recommendations. The main problem most company people have is a lack of understanding, which forces companies to rein in the creativity and sharing way too much, and it chokes out any chance of an organic feel to your social media channels.

Therefore, we’re going to list some simple do’s and don’ts for the business professional to follow when he or she is on the company Facebook page.

Do’s Don’ts

Post on your company Facebook wall positive comments about current promotions.	Claim any inside knowledge of promotions currently going on at your company.
Participate in community related posts (Did you see the Sox game last night?)”Yes, what a mess!”	Complain about work in any of your posts (Did you see the Sox game last night?)”No, I was stuck at work.....”
Represent yourself as a nice person.	Represent yourself as a mouthpiece for the company.
Like positive comments others make about your company.	Defend your company’s honor by conversing with negative comment makers.
Share your company’s pics, tag yourself in photos, etc. with your friends and family, if you feel the urge.	Post pictures on your company wall. If you have something the company should share, give it to your social media team.

Test time!!

If your company posts, “We’re having a great sale on widgets tomorrow. Come on down and check it out!”, the appropriate thing to do is:

Like the post.
Comment: “Yeah, it’s going to be a blast! See you all tomorrow!”
Comment: “I can’t wait to buy the widget. What a deal!”
Like every single comment that follows the original post.

You are reading through your company’s Facebook page, and someone wrote on the wall, “What a horrible place to do business!” the appropriate thing to do is:

Comment: “I feel you buddy. That place sucks!”
Comment: “No it doesn’t. What’s wrong with you?”
Do absolutely nothing on Facebook. Email your social media team that the comment exists on the page.
Comment: “Sorry you feel that way. Can you tell me what they did to you? Maybe I can help.”

Your social media team posts: “Congratulations to John Smith for 25 years working with us.” You should:

Like the post.
Comment, “Great job John! That’s awesome!”
Comment, “You stayed there HOW LONG! Are you insane?”
Answers 1&2.

I hope I didn’t throw you any curve-balls. The answers should have been fairly straightforward. (1,3,4 for those that need everything spelled out...) Your social media policy should be easily summed in one or two sentences, “Represent your company’s values by being a polite, friendly person. Do not act on behalf of the company in any way while you are on the social media pages, but feel free to be an active fan of the company.”

Capitalizing On Your Niche

2011-09-27T06:03:00.000-07:00

I was watching “Yo Gabba Gabba” yesterday with my 19 month old daughter yesterday. Thank you for your sympathy. It did remind me of something that I haven’t really thought of since I was an elementary teacher, many years ago. It brought up the concept of “Everyone has a talent”. As adults, we tend to think of this idea as simply a means of building up children’s self esteem, so that if they are lacking at one proficiency, we can point to another skill and say, “There’s your talent.” It goes hand in hand with the idea that “Everyone is special.”

That concept is usually taught young, and then driven out of us, the older we get. Today, I ask that you look at your business through the five-year-old’s rose-colored glasses. Without trying to determine what makes your business special, you cannot accurately build an emotional connection with your customer base, and in turn cannot have an effective social media strategy. Without thinking about what makes you special, you cannot brand your business as filling a niche.

Sometimes, this means you’ve got to dig deep. As a teacher, it wasn’t always easy to figure out what character trait or skill I was going to emphasize with a student, in order to help that child feel special. It can be equally challenging for your business, too. For example, if you run a small retail establishment, similar to every other corner store, how can we define you as providing a niche?

If your business is so cookie cutter in actual goods and services, and you are unable to point out anything that we can market as a niche, perhaps you need to look at defining the personality of your business. Can your store be considered the most helpful, friendliest, personable? Think of all the establishments that have separated themselves based on a personality trait, rather than services rendered. There is even a restaurant in Boston called Dick’s Last Resort, who has created a niche by being rude to its customers! The expression, “To each his own” defines capitalizing on a niche market.

Companies often fail to capitalize on a personality niche because they try to define their own personality, instead of looking at how others view them. As a teacher, if a child wanted to claim a talent trait and state he was the next Andrea Bocelli, when in reality, the child sounded more like Biz Markie, it was the responsibility of the teacher to steer the child in a different way. Steer them not to demolish the student’s self image, but to point them in a direction that was realistic, and help them develop. The last thing you want to do is advertise based on a niche you do not possess. Just because you want to think of your business as “The most fun Store ever” doesn’t make it reality. Do some market research. See how customers see your business.

If you can figure out what makes you special, you can better advertise it. If enough people do business with you, because of what makes you special, then you have effectively created a niche that needed to be filled in the market. Doing this creates a loyal customer base, with lots of return business.

And you’ve made your kindergarten teacher so proud.

Written by Chris Gregoire

Is this a good idea?

2011-09-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

We built this image, color coded it to match our background, and incorporated our logo into the center of the QR. It works, and brings you to a non-mobilized contact page. We feel that branding a QR should happen around the code, not inside of it, and are using this as a “Not to do”. Instead, we feel you should keep the QR black and white, and add your brand messaging around the code. How do you feel? Comment below, or on Our Facebook page.

We'll update this blog on Monday, with our reasons why we feel the way we do.

Are social media jobs dead?

2011-09-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

This does not make you a social media strategist

Before answering the title question, take a moment and ask a second question: Is there a print ad specialist? Someone that knows everything about print ads? The question sounds silly, right? Because we know that print ads need first a creative influence, and then a good copywriter, and a great artist, to be effective. Next, you need a media buyer to put the newly created print ad in the correct publications or locations for it to reach the target audience. Not to mention, if you want the print to tie into other parts of an effective marketing campaign, you need the print to sync up with radio or television, as part of a full spectrum campaign.

Which one of these people, listed above, would you list as a “Print Ad Ninja?”

Social media strategists have been looked at the wrong way by the industry for a long time. This is mostly because of the technical requirements that differ from other types of advertising. In the past, it could be claimed as a completely different form of media because the skills required to make the advertisement come to life were found in the technical departments. Therefore, the ability to claim Social Media Guru, Ninja, Master, etc. were left to people that may not have the marketing skill, but who had the technical skill to make it happen.

Creating a marketing strategy, no matter what the medium, is more than simply the medium’s technical requirements. The ability to code in HTML, CSS, PHP, etc does not necessarily mean that the person can market. Just because I can string sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into pages, does not make me the next Stephen King.

A social media strategist has a lot more to do with the strategy, and a lot less to do with the use of technical tools. A true social media strategist is concerned with how to blend a marketing campaign into a medium that listens instead of speaking. Simply put, a social media strategist should be a part of your creative process, not a part of your IT department.

The influx of a younger generation that knows the ins and outs of the tools of social media does not worry the true social media strategist, the same way that the creation of blogs did not scare the professional writer. An architect is not afraid of a carpenter, is he? The fact that there is a plethora of new users in business that can help to build effective campaigns is a dream come true to a social media strategist, as this means he or she can spend less time doing the day to day process and can focus more on building strategies.

In answer of the question, “Are social media jobs dead?” the answer is a resounding “NO”. However, the ability to hide behind simple coding processes, the ability to claim Ninja skills based on technical computer literacy, is dying. To the true social media strategist, it couldn’t have happened soon enough.

Using YouTube for Increased Customer Service

2011-09-08T05:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend, weather permitting, I am installing a floodlight on the top of my garage. It’s going to be one of the motion sensor type that will probably get set off 5 times a night by the stray cats in the neighborhood, but it’s what the wife wants, and she typically gets what she wants. This may come as a surprise, but I am not an electrician. Marketing, yes. Wiring, not so much. I managed to electrocute myself this past weekend while painting around a light switch, so there’s a good reason for some concern.

For this purchase, I simply picked the closest box off of the shelf at Home Depot. The light I bought came with written instructions. I guess someone could try to read those over and over until it sinks in. I’m not big on reading instructions, so I turned to YouTube, to see what was there. I simply typed, “How to wire a light,” into YouTube’s search bar, and I was on my way.

In a perfect world, I would watch a video on the installation of the exact light that I am about to install. Unfortunately, the light I bought did not have a video online. Instead of watching a video made by the maker of the light I purchased, I watched one of its competitor’s videos. Who do you think will earn my future business?

In order to keep your customers away from your competitors, a part of your marketing strategy (Now we get to the part I’m good at..) should use some video. Overall, your entire strategy should be based on two things:

Showing your devotion to positive customer service and experience.
Showing your product and company as the best choice, and the expert in your field.

Video can add to your customer satisfaction by increasing the level of usability of your product, and your website. Does your site have a frequently asked questions section? Each question can be asked and answered in individual short videos. Does your product require an instruction manual? Create videos showing proper assembly, usage, etc. Do you have a trouble-shooting section? Create a walkthrough video of the most common errors customers have with your product.

Not only does video help by educating your customers, it also lends credibility to your company and product. Walk into a cell phone store and ask the employee working there how to access email on one of the smartphones. Can that employee answer your question? Then chances are, you would be willing to buy the phone from him. Videos are proof to your customers that you know how to use your own product, and that you can answer all of their questions in the future if there are issues.

A couple of quick suggestions:

Tutorial videos should be clear and concise, but do not need to be professionally shot. They can be done on a handheld camera.
Your videos should live on YouTube, and play from your website. You don’t want to send your customers to YouTube, as they may wander to someone else’s video. However, you want people looking on YouTube to be able to wander onto yours.
Always show your video to someone who has no knowledge of what you do with the featured product or process before uploading. If they don’t understand what they watched, assume your customer won’t. Remember, you’re the expert. You aren’t the best judge whether your video can teach someone foreign to the subject on how to use your product.

Remember, these are videos for customer service, created to help your customers. They are not a direct sales tool. Although they may help to sell a customer that knows you have them, that customer is being sold on your higher level of service. If you are building a video to sell your product or company outright, you need a professional quality video. Do not think the two are interchangeable.

Increasing Your Word of Mouth Advertising

2011-09-02T04:52:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you needed something, and turned to Google Maps to get the answer? I had to visit my in-laws last week, and knew that afterwards, I was going to want to go someplace nice to eat. I’m not real familiar with the restaurants around them, so I figured I would take a peek at what was in the area.

I loaded up the town, and saw several restaurants in their immediate area. Now, rather than just basing where I went by the name of the establishment, I looked at the reviews showing on Google. I’m sure I’m not the only person that has done this...

What we’re talking about is virtual word of mouth. Every business nowadays has reviews online. It’s not limited to restaurants. If you show up on a map, chances are, you have at least one review. How often do you go and look at your reviews? And how often do you encourage people to add new ones?

As I read through many of the reviews, it was obvious that some restaurants weren’t encouraging people to review. There were only extremely good reviews, or extremely bad. It was the “Everything was perfect, come here - oops, I mean, go there - often!” style review, which was obviously written by an employee of the establishment. There were also the “If the restaurant burned to the ground, they would finally be able to say they cooked the food.” type of review from someone whose only goal is to hurt the business.

When I was at my in-laws, I asked them where they would go, and got a real review. They told me that the place was quick, good food, and that the staff was nice. They told me that the parking was a little rough, since it was only on the street parking, but it wasn’t that hard to find a spot. Lastly, they told me it was kid friendly, and that they were used to having an 18 month old throw the occasional fit. Now, that’s a review!

How many customers would actually give you a real, useful review, if your business made it easy for them? The problem is, unless your service is either extremely good, or extremely bad, most people won’t bother.

My free suggestion for businesses today is to create a QR code that links to your Google Places Page. Simply find your business on Google maps, and click on it. Once it opens into the Google Places page, use the “Link” button to get the direct URL to go to this page, and create a QR code for it. Post it in your business. On this QR code, tell people that you want their feedback. And then check it often! Watch for trends, and take the advice that people offer.

Chances are, you will get flamed more than once, but understand that these people probably would have given a poor review without your encouragement. By showing you care about their review, you are automatically going to increase the positive vibe from the average customer. Now, go get some virtual word of mouth!

Don't Open a Twitter Account

2011-08-31T09:05:00.000-07:00

Unless, of course, you can properly staff it.

I know, I know -- 100 million people use twitter; 150 million tweets per day are sent; it’s a great way to interact with customers, etc.

There are lots of stories about how Twitter has been used to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Additionally, a number of books can be found on the topic of Twitter -- providing everything from the basics, to excellent examples of how to use this powerful tool.

Of course, with the good comes the bad.

This past Sunday, the area in which I live was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Irene. Now, I was prepared for the outage, so it hasn’t had too much of a negative impact. Quite frankly, I’ve enjoyed the peace and quiet that the electrical outage has afforded me.

My power company was quick to direct people to their Twitter feed for updates on restorations. Seeing that they appeared to be responding to people’s tweets regarding the outages, I tweeted them -- 3 days ago -- and never heard back. Come to find out, they were only responding to a small portion of the tweets they received.

I’m using the above as a fairly drastic example (given the extenuating circumstances with the storm) -- but, unfortunately, there are thousands of cases just like this. People have come to expect that if you open an account, they can interact with you. In my case, I’ve essentially been on hold for 3 days, via Twitter. People expect a response just like they would a phone call, email or web form. You wouldn’t let any of those go unanswered, would you?

Don't make your customers work so hard to contact you. Make sure that if you open a Twitter account (or any other social media channel), you are properly staffed, either internally or externally, to make sure the customer experience is at the level it needs to be.

Buzzword Bingo

2011-08-26T05:07:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest joys in building a marketing campaign is looking at the product, and trying to come up with words that truly exemplify the experience the customer will have with the product. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to return to the same well, and pull out several of the same words. There are plenty of lists out there of overused advertising buzzwords, and we aren’t going to make another one.

Instead of creating a similar list, what we are going to do is help you become more descriptive. If you click on this link, you will find an excel spreadsheet to download. Once you download it, you will see that there are six bingo cards filled out with words pulled from a list of 100 most overused words in Press Releases.

This is one game of Bingo you don’t really want to win.

If you’re reviewing your soon-to-be-released PR package, and it stands a chance of winning a game, you have too many buzzwords. This means that there is a good chance the average reader of your release will immediately think “Sales” and Pitch your copy directly into the cylindrical file.

The solution is to look at each of those buzz words, and examine them from the customer’s point of view. Domino’s Pizza’s brand image relaunch would have gone horribly, if they had said, “Domino’s crust is New And Improved”. Instead, what caught the general public’s attention was “Domino’s crust is cardboard and no one likes it.” Then, they explained that it was new, and improved. The fact that the buzzwords were implied, and not surrounded by bright flashing lights, made this campaign a huge success.

Writing smarter doesn’t mean use bigger, better buzzwords. It means connecting with your audience more effectively, so they have a better understanding. Write in a way that illustrates to the reader that you care about their needs, and are here to serve them, not just to WOW them.

(buzzwords for the cards were taken from a great blog, listed here:http://www.adamsherk.com/public-relations/most-overused-press-release-buzzwords)

Paid, Owned, and Earned Media, part 2

2011-08-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

Now that each has a name, and we realize the differences, we can begin to understand how to use these definitions to help clarify some of your advertising.

We’ll use an imaginary flower shop, called Rosie’s, as an example. Rosie’s decides to increase its business. Rosie’s pays for print ads, email blasts, and some direct mail. All of this advertising looks good; there are sharp, crisp images, and the language clearly states that large percentages are being discounted for a precise period of time. Unfortunately, sales don’t increase. Is Rosie’s to assume that “Print is dead?” Why did this paid media fail?

This is why having a smart advertising company that understands the holistic approach to marketing is important. A good ad agency doesn’t look at the ad, and say, “This is great!” until they have examined what your competition is saying, what the physical restrictions to your business may be, and what the general population thinks of both you and your product. If Rosie’s is located in a small, hard to find place, a portion of the ad needs to address how to find Rosie’s a little more than, say, a BestBuy would. If Rosie’s was known for having poor quality in the past, the ad needs to address the reputation, and clearly state that there has been a change.

When companies most often fail with paid media, the failure is caused by thinking that the ads will run in a vacuum. Remember, everything needs to tie together, to have a full message. Just because you have the ability to say whatever you want with paid media, you still need to have ads based in reality, of what the customer should expect from both you and the product. Obviously, you cannot break the law, with false advertising. Beyond that, the ad must also have a certain level of credibility. How many businesses have put together ads that are too good to be true, only to have no customer participation? How many times has the phrase “tons in stock” actually meant “just a couple”? Bending the truth will eventually catch up with you, and your paid media will become less effective.

The easiest of these to repair is the most tangible; your owned media. By “Easy” I don’t mean “Inexpensive”. Get your websites under control. Make your physical location pleasant, clean, and accessible. Stock the products your customers want. Provide customers with a pleasant place to do business.

The hardest to wrangle is the earned media. Earned implies that a company cannot simply go out and buy it. You get it from the customers. In order to have a successful earned media presence, you need your customer service spot on. You need to give the customer avenues to talk to your company about any service issue that comes up, as well as an experience that they would want to share with others. Although websites fall under owned media, the comments from customers on your social media channels are most certainly “earned” media. Complete transparency and a way to discuss any issue that may occur is your primary concern. Building some loyalty through some fun, innovative ways, whether it be Facebook contests, loyalty cards, and rewards programs all have the potential to increase your positive earned media. Referral plans work to build word of mouth for some businesses. You can try to influence earned media, but a lot of it has to happen organically, and over time.

Paid, Owned, and Earned Media, part 1

2011-08-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

Do you know the difference between Owned, Paid and Earned Media? Beyond the differences, do you understand the relationships of them; as well has how to direct each one in a manner that is most useful to your organization?

Although all three are fairly obvious in hindsight, it is probably best to take a moment and define them.

Paid- Stuff you bought. Radio ads, PPC, TV spots, print ads, banner ads, corporate sponsorships, etc. You spent money on these with the sole purpose of bringing in business through the door (or online). In summary, they are what you want people to think of when they examine your brand, and the message may not be 100% accurate to reality. For example, you could say you have the greatest prices ever with paid advertising, but it certainly does not make it true.

Owned - Stuff you own. Your website, your social media channel and presence on the social media channel, your inventory, the uniforms of your employees, the actual brick and mortar of your establishment, etc. All of these carry your company branding, and work as advertisements for your business. They are static, and relatively unchanging. In their totality, they most accurately show your audience or customer what you are really all about. Although there can be some manipulation of the owned media, people can examine your owned media for themselves, and make judgments.

Earned - Stuff you have little real control over. Word of mouth, the responses on your social media sites, reviews from news agencies and critics, your customer satisfaction indexes, your reputation, etc. These are what your market thinks of you. You can have the greatest facility in the world, and all the advertising you want, but if your reputation is bad, you are going to struggle with repeat business. You influence this, but you don’t control it.

Each of these areas is extremely important, although they function very differently. The overlap of some aspects, and how they share the same space, is proof positive that it is impossible to pay attention to only one of these types of media. For example, you cannot have reactions on your Facebook wall (earned) without having a Facebook Page (owned). Excellent reviews on Yelp (earned) won’t bring some customers into a store with bars on the windows in the wrong part of town (owned). Paying for a great radio spot to bring people into your horribly staffed, badly organized store (owned) can result in no new sales, and could actually hurt your word of mouth (earned). So you can see how they are all related, even though they are not the same.

As you work your way down the list, the level of control shifts from your hands to others. For example, you can say whatever you want in your paid ads, based on as much fantasy as you want. They are your words. When you get to owned, there is a certain level of control. You can redesign your website however you want, you can paint your store, and you can dress your employees up in wonderful attire, but if your shelves are empty, you can’t fake it. There is some control. Bad reviews, based on misinformation, virtually destroyed Audi (the 6000 debacle) Ford (saddlebag gas tanks) and others. Your earned media can be influenced, but don’t think, even for a minute, that you can truly control it.

10 Reasons Why You Need to Have a Mobile Web Site

2011-08-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

There are over 80 million people accessing the Web via their Smartphones. That audience is WAY too large to ignore.

Smartphones outsell PC’s. That was true at the end of last year. The gap between the two platforms is only going to grow.

Mobile Web sites reach all audiences, while apps do not. Sure, the idea of having a shiny new app is all sorts of exciting. But, focus your efforts on cleaning up your mobile Web presence first.

Most Web sites mobile traffic grew by more than 50% this year. More Smartphones means more traffic. Mobile Web use more than doubled in 2010, and there’s no reason to think the increase won’t be even greater in 2011.

In 3 years, more people will access the Internet via their Smartphone, than they do through a desktop. Over 80 million users and counting!

Desktop sites are sometimes difficult, and often impossible to use on a mobile device. Pinching to zoom in on desktop sites stinks. Mobile browsing is all about offering up a quick loading and easy-to-use experience.

43 Million people check email from their mobile phone daily. When your customers click on a link to your website from a mobile e-mail client, it should be visible, accessible, and optimized for mobile.

Your competitors have a mobile web site. And you don’t. I hope I didn’t scare you.

Reach your audience on the go. Good customer service means being there to assist them at all times. If you don’t have a mobile website, you aren’t truly there for them at all times.

Making your website more efficient

2011-08-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

After taking a good, long, honest look at your business’s online identity, you have come to the realization that it is lacking. Maybe the look and feel is reminiscent of an Atari game. The only emails you receive from your website are from Nigerian Princes or offers to rebuild your website. Even though your site is old and out of date, trying to load up your website on a Smartphone is an impossibility with all of the flash navigation you have on it. Not to mention, the name of your site is www.2beornottoB.net, for all of your Shakespearean needs. How do we fix this without completely starting from scratch?

First, we’ll conquer the domain name issue. Your domain name is a main part of your branding. If you cannot line up your business name with your web name completely, you’d better have something close. Buying multiple domains, and pointing them all at the same site, is one way to help organize this. Just for fun, type in www.coke.com. Notice, it brings you to www.coca-cola.com. Try www.cocacola.com. Same thing, right? If your name could be confusing, or if there’s a chance that someone will type it in wrong, go out and buy yourself some extra domain names, and point them all at your site. Do your best to make sure that you have all of the possible names customer’s may accidentally put when looking for your name.

Next, if your website design hasn’t changed in the last couple of years, you probably need an overhaul. For one thing, any pictures you have of people may seem dated, due to their outfits. Even something as simple as blue jeans and a T-shirt can appear dated. Colors have come and gone out of style. Even your font choice may cry out “New, Inexperienced Company Here”. Keep your site current, with new graphics and style cues. Hint: there’s more than 16 colors allowed on computers now.

If you’re trying to get email from your website, have a form, not just your email address posted there for the world to copy. A form will help to limit some of the junk mail. Understand, there are still desperate people that will go and fill out your form, trying to sell you things, but at least they have to do it on your website. They can’t simply copy your email address into their mass email program and pepper you over and over again. It also makes things easier for your customer. For example, if a customer uses a web-based email system, like Yahoo, they have to copy your email address and LEAVE YOUR SITE to contact you. Do you really want them going off, onto a different site to contact you? Or do you think that they could be distracted when they leave your site, and go to their email? Who knows, maybe that Nigerian Prince has contacted them, too...

In case you didn’t know, people don’t want to read about your business. How many “About us” categories does one business need?(about us, our history, our goals, what we do, how we do it, when we do what we do, our beliefs, meet our staff, meet our staff’s family, meet our pets, our pet’s history and goals, etc.....) The primary subject of your website is your customer. Your website needs descriptions of your products, FAQ’s on how to use them best, contacts for sales or customer service, and a limited amount of social proof. Your website is a sales tool, to either directly sell your product or service right online, or to increase off-line sales. Make sure the point of your website is one click away at most. If you are selling goods, make the sales process easy. Don’t force the customer to fill out 20 different forms before they buy, or they won’t bother.
Remember, it’s about ease for the consumer, not for you.

We’ll tackle mobile websites tomorrow.

Is Your Website Ready for Anything?

2011-08-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

What would you consider the most basic defining character of a website? I would say that it is to share information. The quality of the information, and the ease at getting this information from the website determines how good the website is. Because the ease of getting to the information is what determines the usability of the website, if the user can’t get to it, your site just doesn’t perform.

You thought I was going to go technical there, didn’t you?

In order to determine if your site is ready for today’s world, we need to look at it in three different ways. The first is the most obvious: on a desktop or laptop computer. Chances are, you’re reading this blog on one of these devices. If you go from this blog to your website, you will see what we like to call the “traditional” website.

Now, before we go any further, you need to remember why your potential customer visits your website. If they can’t get to the primary purpose quickly, with one or two clicks, your website needs some major work... So, stop what you’re doing and fill out the “Feedback” page located on the side of the browser window. Your traditional website needs to be usable, and needs to provide the answers to any questions your customer may need before doing business with you. Once again, we can help with this, if your site is not up to par. Chances are, if you haven’t updated your website in the past two years, you probably have a problem.

The second place we need to look at your website is on a Smartphone. Load up your website on your phone, and see how long it takes. Before you start playing around with zoom features, can you read it? Can you find the link to answer your questions, without squinting or zooming? Basically, is your mobile website built?

A mobile website is not simply your traditional website, but smaller. It should be completely different website. It should have nice, big buttons, that are easy to read. It should have menus that are obvious. You shouldn’t have to start by figuring out which way to best zoom your screen. Your content should be different, legible, and instantly available to the user. You don’t need to be able to answer every possible question your customer needs before doing business with you; but rather any question your customer needs to do business with you RIGHT NOW. Setting appointments, buying services, hours of operation, etc.

Go to Amazon.com on your phone, and you can buy things. You can search the entire store. Does it look anything like Amazon’s traditional website? Yes, it does. It carries the same brand messaging, and it has a similar feel, but it is obviously not the same exact page you see on your computer screen.

That’s two places, and I said, we needed to check three. The third is your URL. If I like your site, or your services, can I tell a friend your site? Can it be passed along easily? When you want to tell someone your website, do you need to say, “Here, let me spell it for you?” You need to stay away from certain words, like 2 and to and two. I’ll be too confused after trying to remember which type of TWO that I’m not going to go 2 ur site. (be careful of strange abbreviations, too!)

If you’re in good shape for all three places, Good job! If you aren’t, stay tuned for suggestions on how to turn it around without starting from scratch.

What drives people to your website?

2011-08-02T05:12:00.000-07:00

What was the last small to medium sized business website that you visited online recently?

Why did you visit it?

Often times, when small to mid-sized businesses begin the design of their websites, these two questions don’t come up. The businesses worry about the questions of, “How are we going to present our content? What are the colors going to be? How can we best highlight how up to date we are? Do we want a graphics and video heavy site, or go with something more basic?” The questions are geared towards WHAT the website will be, instead of WHY.

Why have you visited a small business website? Was it to contact the business? Shop? Look for support on some issue you had after making a purchase or obtaining a service? Was it something as basic as “Where are they located?” or “What time are they open?”

Design elements are extremely important, and using your website as a platform that explains both your projected brand image and is visually pleasing is obviously such an important part of website design that sometimes the usage is negatively affected. Here are some solutions to making sure your website is functionally up to par.

Look at the emails you have received.

How many of these are asking questions that the customer should have been able to answer easily from reading your website?
Are there usage questions of your product that you could create additional pages/videos for? Perhaps a “How to” section?

Count the number of clicks to get to your main reason for having a website.

Do you sell online? How complicated is this process for the customer? Is there a one-click method for returning customers?
Do you take some form of application? How many clicks is it to reach said application? Is the application worth doing online, or would the customer find it too complex?

Simple usability.

How many different pages is your “About Us” spread over? (About us, What We Do, Our Story, From the Desk of, etc.)
Does your customer have to search for contact information? Business hours? Store location?
How’s your beautiful site look on a smartphone? Is it still usable?
How many levels down does your website go? Can you get back to your main menu with a couple of quick clicks of the “Back” button?
There are questions that your cashier/ service technician may hear all the time, that could be answered on your site. Be proactive.

Aesthetics count. No one goes to your business web page simply to see how pretty a website you have built. Make sure it delivers on content, and on functionality.

Is your brand out of date?

2011-07-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

On the radio, I caught a little portion of a discussion regarding the idea that having an email ending with @aol.com can “Hurt your personal Brand” by making you seem outdated. There were some facts that they were taking into consideration, such as the demographic of people currently using an @aol.com were over 40 years old, and using the email from home only. This radio discussion went hand in hand with a push that Google is currently using, the Gmail Intervention. See the Mashable article here.

Can your personal brand go out of date? Is there really such thing as a “Personal Brand”?

If you’re name is Oprah, Madonna, Gordon Ramsay, or Steve Jobs, then yes, there is certainly a personal brand. If you are a small business owner, whose personal reputation is tied completely to the business, then possibly your personal reputation is fused with your business branding. If you don’t fit into either of these two categories, you probably don’t have a “Personal Brand”.

You have a reputation. You may project a particular, possibly stereotypical view of yourself. Neither are a brand.

Sony, as a brand, is known for innovation in entertainment. The Walkman, the Diskman, the Playstation, were at one point cutting edge technological advances in how we experience audio and video. That’s a serious brand, with a concrete brand message.

Gordon Ramsay is known the world over for having impeccable taste in food with the highest standards of quality and service, along with a potty mouth. You know if you step foot in one of his restaurants, the quality of food is going to be bar none. If you buy his cookware, you know its going to last. That’s a personal brand.

If you meet a man named Joe, who says he is a plumber, does he have a brand? It’s possible, that in his community, the name Joe’s Plumbing is known for excellent service, and it may extend to Joe, but not necessarily.

Individuals don’t have to worry about branding. They need to focus on reputation, and having integrity. Some of the same concepts come into play, such as treating people well, being a hard worker, etc., but it isn’t the same thing as having “Brand awareness.”

So, keep your aol.com email addresses. Tell people, “I’m retro”. If you still have an old @CS.com, you’re vintage!

Don’t worry about Google Page Rank

2011-07-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

I had a discussion with a peer yesterday regarding the importance (or lack thereof) of Google Page Rank. I'm a firm believer that Page Rank us fairly useless. Here's a blog a wrote on the topic a few months ago regarding Google Page Rank.

Why? I’ll tell you why...

You can’t track Page Rank.

Typically, the most accurate Page Rank data is months old. Unless you can accurately and frequently get new data for a metric, it’s pretty much useless.

Page Rank has nothing to do with SEO rankings.

A website can have a Page Rank of 0, and still garner organic rankings and search traffic.

Page Rank does not take social results into account.

Increasingly, social media exchanges, real-time news and other social content are making their way into search results.

Page Rank isn’t a results metric.

The only metrics you should rely on are:

quality leads
customers
revenue

Even Google says page rank isn’t important.

Don’t believe me?

So, what should you do? Don't worry about Page Rank. Instead, worry about creating engaging content, promoting it via social media, and converting those content readers into leads and customers.

Is your brand strong enough to start a movement?

2011-07-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Have you ever launched a new marketing campaign? Many times, a campaign is conceived based directly on the sales process, and then moved into the realm of advertising. That means starting with the sales process and expanding upon it. For those not in sales, and looking for a starting place, many times we begin with FAB, which stands for:

Feature - what your product does.
Advantage - what makes it better than the competition.
Benefit - why the customer’s life is better with this product.

What if you have a really strong product, that completely decimates the competition? What if your advantage is so great, that in your opinion, the choice of going with the competition is actually hurting the customer?

Rather than focusing on simple advantages that your product gives over the competition, you need to start a movement against your competition. An example of this idea is Smart (the car brand). Their cultural movement is that buying a large, gas-guzzling vehicle is wasteful, harmful, and irresponsible. Spend some time on their Facebook wall, and you’ll see that they have created an environment that is less about the car, and more about anti- big vehicles. They have effectively created a movement. Let’s face it, there are lots of small vehicles that get comparable gas mileage. Yet none make the statement of “I hate gas guzzlers” like a Smart does.

The Nissan Leaf does the same thing, with making it less about the car, and more about how you cause no harm to the environment. They are focusing on their advantage to the point that the marketing becomes less about the product’s merits, and more about how the competition hurts you. In their most recent commercial, a polar bear hugs the owner of a Leaf. This clearly states that the goal of saving the environment can come about from the Leaf’s movement of eliminating gas burning vehicles.

Others have tried this, and haven’t been able to take it out of the advantage stage. Watch an AT&T or Verizon commercial, and the two spend a lot of time putting down the other’s service. That’s because they couldn’t turn it into a movement, but kept it at the level of a perceived advantage. No one signs a contract with Verizon thinking, “AT&T is trying to destroy the planet with bad service.”

While we’re discussing cell phones, we have to touch base on Apple. That brand has so effectively become a movement that Apple Evangelist is in Wikipedia. There is even an Anti-Apple movement. We’re talking about computer devices, not political parties, although the discussion between an Apple Evangelist and a (Windows based) PC user can sound like a political debate.

So what’s the point you ask? How does this result in sales? Simple = people are always much more loyal to a cause than to a product. Can your product revolutionize how people think of your product versus your competition? Can you replace advertising for a product with informing the masses of your brand’s movement?

Google+ For Businesses

2011-07-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

When a social platform starts growing exponentially, good marketers take notice and move in fast. However, social media marketers, not unlike myself, have hit a major roadblock with Google+ – there are no business tools. What’s a company to do?

According to Google+ Ads Lead Christian Oestlien – fittingly in a YouTube video posted on his Google+ profile page – here’s what you need to know:

1. Don’t create a business page yet: Oestlien asked brands and business to hold off using consumer profiles to create a business identity on Google+. Using a personal profile for a company or brand violates the Google+ terms of service (much like Facebook’s policy). In summary, create pages at your own risk until the proper tools become available.

2. Google+ business tools will be coming… sometime this year: Google engineers are currently working on separate business pages, which will include integration with other services like AdWords. According to Oestlien, the “business experience we are creating should far exceed the consumer profile in terms of its usefulness to businesses.” However, no time frame has been set for the deployment of these tools.

3. Apply to be part of the Google+ for business pilot: Google will be testing business features with a small number of users. You can apply here: http://goo.gl/zq95C

See Christian Oestlien's YouTube video here:

The fact that Google+ has an Ads Lead is a hint of things to come; clearly Google intends to put some form of AdWords on the site, like it has with every other major Google property.
In the meantime, the Google+ roll-out is having a massive effect on Google services across the web, and publishers, brands and businesses should take note. The Google +1 button has already been deployed on Google AdWords and search results. Publishers can (and should) add the +1 button to their content, similar to “Tweet This” or “Share on Facebook” buttons. It is likely that these “votes of confidence” from users will show up on their Google+ profile pages and be integrated into Google’s search rankings secret sauce. In addition, Mashable reported that Google will rebrand Blogger and Picasa to bring them into the Google+ fold. Maybe I’ll hold off on that blog migration I’ve been planning...

It took brands years to get on Facebook; a year or so to realize the value of Twitter. Clearly times have changed. What’s next for Google+? Stay tuned…

Are You Still Selling Door to Door?

2011-07-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

I’m going to tell you a marketing pitch, and see if you think it makes sense.

“Take your product and walk up to the nearest house. Bang on the door and hope someone answers. If they do, ask them an obvious question, one that everyone would answer either positively or negatively, it really doesn’t matter which. Then tell them why their answer is wrong, and ask if they have a short amount of time to learn the better answer. Bring your product into their home, give a demonstration on the spot that shows why your product is superior and sell the product. Write up an order and go to the next house on the street. Repeat the process.”

If your marketing team suggested this as a sales and marketing process, I’m willing to bet you would have some forms to fill out, like termination papers, help wanted ads, etc.

For decades, this door-to-door pedaling was the marketing strategy of several industries. This sales style went out of fashion because there was no reason for the customer to have any interest in the sales pitch, unless they happen to be bored enough to listen. As a business marketing strategy, it is not a strong approach and doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Oddly today we see companies using this same hapless “bored enough to listen” strategy, simply wrapped in a shiny package of new technology. We see companies form Facebook pages, with no strategy to engage the customer. We see YouTube channels that simply run the same boring TV commercials that people fast forward through with their DVR boxes when the ad ran originally.

Advertising has two separate goals: One is brand messaging, and the other is a call to action. Brand messaging is to get your company name recognized by everyone in your market area. A call to action asks that the customer make a purchase. Certain marketing tactics do better at one goal of advertising than others.

Take a look at your current advertising. What is its goal is it clear and is it being achieved? Is it a call to action that people will want to listen to? Is it brand messaging that will stick in the customer’s mind? Or, are you just hoping that the customer is bored enough to pay attention to you?

Stealth Facebook. Too cool not to blog about!

2011-07-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

Typically, this blog focuses on solid marketing and advertising advice, as well as technology to do both better. However, this Post Fourth of July, if you need to ease your way back into work a little slower, we understand, and want to offer a suggestion as to how.

Everyone needs a break once in a while. Often times, when we are "on break", we are still at our desks, just doing non-work stuff. Let's face it, the computers on our desks provide us an opportunity for entertainment, as well as work. However, unless you have a neon sign that lights up "On Break" or "On Duty", if you are sitting at your desk, people assume you are busy working. Having your Facebook account loaded up gives the impression that you are goofing off when you are supposed to be working, when in fact you are simply taking a break.

The solution? The coolest little software program I've seen out in a while!

http://www.hardlywork.in/

This site takes your Facebook stream, and turns it into an excel spreadsheet look-alike. The image in the bottom right changes, to be the profile pic of the name you hover over, of the image shared in the wall, etc. It shows the number of likes on each wall post, as well as the comments. Hovering over the comments count shows the comments, in a note-like fashion.

So, to the casual observer, you are still working, and you don't have to worry about looking like you are wasting company time when really, you are on your break.

Enjoy! And remember to use it responsibly!

Google Plus: Solution to Online Privacy Issues?

2011-06-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

Word on the street is that Google Plus is looking pretty good. As great as it looks, many are expecting the Circles feature to be what truly differentiates Google Plus from its main competitor. While Facebook continues to revamp its privacy options, there are still the countless stories out there having to do with people that have been fired, retired, dumped, and even evicted due to certain dealings on the world’s largest social networking site all in the name of good fun. Google has come up with a revolutionary solution to that which will most likely set the standard in days to come. How Google sizes up in the long run remains to be seen, but again, word on the street is…it’s looking pretty good.

A quick look at the new Google offering:

A Shift in Your Vision: Banner Ads

2011-06-23T06:23:00.000-07:00

Is any marketing safe? Not a day goes by that we don't read stories of television ads losing viewers because of DVRs, mobile devices (tablets, smart phones, etc.), and people watching video online. There are stories of how no one reads print anymore, and that print ads are going away. The latest news is that click through rates on banner ads are at their lowest percentage ever. What’s an advertiser to do?

Change your paradigm.

Side note: I’ve always wanted to use Paradigm in a title, ever since I read my first Dilbert cartoon strip.

Banner ad click through rates are certainly at a low. People have a tendency to tune them out. Even if it is exactly what they need, with a flashing billboard of their name, saying, “You need this!!!” there’s a good chance they will miss it. As a society, we are trained to look away from these ads. You almost have to spring them on someone to get a response.

The belief has always been that a banner ad is only useful if it encourages an immediate call to action. For example, if 1000 people see the ad, and 2 click, your .2% CTR shows how effective that ad was. The shift in vision is to consider these banner ads the same way that you would consider your television ad - as a branding platform.

Banner ads that are used as branding tools do not need to say, “Click here”. In fact, a click to such an ad should only bring the customer to a brand awareness landing page. The call to action is not “BUY OUR PRODUCT NOW” or “USE OUR SERVICE NOW” but rather, “Remember us when you need us, because we’re the guys you want to do business with.”

The use of banner ads can mirror your social media platforms. Rather than an immediate call to action, you are using your banner ads to create a brand loyalty based on respect. In fact, rather than pushing landing pages to sell product, you can begin to use banner ads to suggest your social media channels, where the future customer can see what you’re really all about, and make an informed decision. It is a way of showing your company as more than a peddler of goods, but as a company worth doing business with.

This is a non-traditional use of banner ads, and we wouldn’t recommend this to be your only use of such a medium, but it is certainly a direction that is worth looking into. If click through rates are all you are concerned with, this isn’t the program for you. If you’re interested in expanding your advertising reach, and can imagine your banner ads as basically television commercials, then this is for you. No one has a click through rate on TV. (Of course, Old Navy, with their Shazam encoded commercials come close...)

Are your ready to shift your vision?

Spreading your knowledge to the world, 500 words at a time.

2011-06-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

The values of running a blog aside your traditional website have been touted several times, in countless articles for years. Most of the articles I have read go over the same common facts:

Blogs increase SEO to your website, as long as it is set up correctly.
Blogs enable your company to provide anecdotal summaries that show you are the expert in your field.
Blogs are social, and allow for a give and take between your company and your reader to answer questions and provide additional information.
Blogs enable your company to be found by customers based on ideas and concepts, instead of just product names.

Depending on how nit-picky you chose to get, this list could continue on for quite a ways. Rarely in life is the WHY the easy question. Most often, the WHAT or the HOW is the easier question. So for this article, we’re not concerned with the WHY you should have a blog for your business. We’re concerned with the WHAT to write and the HOW to come up with new information.

When your personal muse has gone on hiatus and you are searching desperately for something new and interesting to write about, remember what the main purpose of a blog is: to share information. There is an application on your computer whose sole purpose is to share information, and it’s called your email program. Every time someone has asked you a question, there is an opportunity to turn the answer into a blog post.

For example, if a customer emailed you a question on how to use your product, there’s a good chance that someone else doesn’t know how to use it correctly, either. Write a blog, and call it, “How to best use this product.” The idea is, if someone in the future is having trouble, and they turn to Google, presto! They type in “How do I use this product?” and your blog appears.

Almost any email you send or receive can become a blog posting, if you look at it as pure information. Another example: An email from a vendor, explaining that your product is going to be late because of limits at the factory? Re-write this received email as an explanation for low inventory.

Who handles customer complaints at your company? Every single time a customer has made a valid claim against you, it should be addressed in a blog. I don’t mean paste a transcription of the complaint against you. If a customer complained because you deliver, and it took too long, write a blog article discussing appropriate delivery expectations. Customer service complaints show where you and your customer have had a breakdown in the communication, and by answering all of these complaints in a written format, you potentially stop the complaint from happening again with a different customer.

Blogs need to be relevant to your business. There is no more relevant a source than the communications already sent regarding your business from people with questions and concerns.

A Flash Sale, the Catalyst for Small Business Increases.

2011-06-09T11:50:00.001-07:00

Amazingly, there is not one Wikipedia entry on this term yet, although there are several entries that do mention it. For those who aren’t comfortable with the term, it means a huge sale for a very short time on a particular item. Sites like Woot.com, DailySteals.com, and etc. work on the idea of a flash sale. Groupon works as a flash sale, by having its members rush in and buy, buy, buy! Can your business accomplish this without services like these? And does it make sense to try?

First of all, let’s break down the term. Flash, in this case, has to do with speed and impact. A “flash mob” forms immediately, has high energy, and is gone forever. They drive up viral video, and work as guerrilla marketing in many different ways. The same is true of a flash sale. They happen quickly, and the outcome is huge.

A recent example of a flash sale is Lady Gaga’s new album going on sale on Amazon for $0.99. It was only available at that price for one day. Amazon had several trending tweets that day. There was a ton of hype around this sale, on all different social media channels. The rush to take advantage of this sale brought down Amazon’s servers, and it brought an unprecedented amount of people onto Amazon’s site. The site, which is the fifth largest site in the United States, ground to a halt by the level of traffic this sale generated.

What does this mean to you, the small to medium business? Can you somehow capture this same level of increase in a day, and make it a positive experience for your customers and your bottom line? You bet!

First, you need to think of an item or service that you typically sell in volume. Something that everyone could use, that is exclusive to you, and that your competition would never dream of giving away at a loss. You want it to be expensive enough that you can show a huge discount, but not so expensive that reducing the price cheapens the product after the sale ends. It also cannot be the only product you sell. You need something that goes hand in hand with lots of other products you sell, with the hope of selling these when your customers arrive. We’ll call this, for the remainder of the blog, “Product X”.

Now, you need to deliver the knowledge about this sale out to the masses. All of your social media channels need to pump this message out, as well as possibly some direct mail, print advertising, etc, depending on your current marketing strategies. You need people to write down on their calendars that this is the day to go buy Product X.

I don’t recommend this type of sale to everyone is that you need a dipstick to test the waters. If you have no social media already in place, and have no email marketing, I don’t necessarily recommend it. You need to be able to see some feedback before the day of the event. You need to be prepared. Without this knowledge, you won’t be able to prepare your stock levels.

The day of the sale, SELL. Sell everything you can. Sell Product X, and everything else that you can sell that day. They come in for Product X, and you want them to leave with Y and Z, and return tomorrow for A, B, and C. You have three goals for this day:

Sell like crazy.
Make everyone happy.
Expand your customer base.

You have to make sure that everyone who partakes in this deal sees how great your business is. You need word of mouth to flow. You need your level of customer satisfaction at its highest on this day. Warn your employees, that although they are going to leave tired, they’d better have their game faces on.

Now, who needs Groupon? If you’re still thinking, “Can this work for my business?” click on the Feedback tab on the left, and we’ll work with you to start your business revolution.

Building Custom Pages on Facebook.

2011-06-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

This box is probably not your friend. You go and spend the time conceptualizing the ultimate page to run on your Facebook page, that will completely captivate your audience. You spent time reading about FBML, and how it differs from HTML. You went and tried to create a static page, that would enable you to actually do business on your Facebook page.

And now you’re stuck with this grey box next to your page. Yuck.

If you are going to build custom pages on Facebook, it’s time to start thinking like a developer. You can’t think, “I’m going to build a page”, but rather, “I’m going to create a Facebook App.” It’s a hard transition, and one that throws people for a loop. Especially if you’ve been in web development for a while, but not in the programming world, you hear the word “App” and cringe. For Facebook, the term is a little more interchangeable.

In order to build a good custom page, you need to bite the bullet and verify your Facebook account with a mobile telephone number. Without doing this, you cannot become an app builder. (For those that think they are tricky, Google Voice numbers don’t work. Sorry, they want the real mobile number, tied to a carrier.) Once you are verified, you can start building Apps.

Before creating your custom page, you need to create your Privacy Policy, and your Terms of Service. I can hear you already, saying, “But I just want to build a simple web page!” It doesn’t matter. You need these two things created. Luckily, there are some decent example ones out there, if you search for them. You’ll also need a server to host these on. Facebook won’t accept your uploads; you need to be able to reference them via url. So, if you’re thinking that Facebook is going to be your only webpage, you are going to need a backup page, to run your app and these files.

Ok, so you’ve built your two text files, and now you want to start building your page. (Yes, please. That’s what this is about, right?) Using whatever building tool you want to, whether it is Dreamweaver, Amaya, or a simple text editor, go ahead, and get your page built, so that it can run on its own. You are going to do NO CODING on the Facebook page. (Very different from the old FBML you spent hours learning.) Your app needs to be able to run completely independent of Facebook.

Don’t worry about coming up with a fancy name for it, since Facebook only wants to see it as an “index.” file. You are going to tell Facebook where to find it on your server, and it will create the an iFrame for it. You log into developer, and create a new app. It’s here where you will assign it a name, give it 2 graphics, (one 16x16, the other 75x75) and enter in the relevant information from your server.

Then, all you have to do is go to the actual app, and click “Add App to Page”. Presto, you’ve got your custom website on your Facebook page. This entire process for someone with experience takes several hours, and for people who have never created a webpage, days of learning, so unless you have the time, it would probably be easier to ask a professional.

Thursday June 2nd. Social Media and E-Marketing Summit!

2011-05-31T10:57:00.000-07:00

We typically don’t use this blog to promote things. It’s bad form. So, please forgive us for it this one time.

On Thursday, June 2^nd, there is a Social Media and E- Marketing Summit occurring in Marlboro, MA. We don’t feel bad promoting this one event on our blog, because it goes so hand in hand with what we talk about on here a couple of times a week, and if you are a local reader of our blog, this event will certainly be something worth visiting. It’s happening at the Marriot Courtyard at 75 Felton Street, in Marlboro, MA. Tickets are on sale, and you need to pre-register for this event NOW.

The topics being discussed are Social Media 101, the Power of Video, the Latest in Mobile Marketing, Understanding Website Analytics, Email Marketing, and Leveraging Social Media for your small business.

If you’ve already signed up, great! If you’d like more information, or are looking to sign up, click here.

For those still on the fence, let me help make it even easier: It goes from 7:30 until 11:45, so it won’t take up your entire day. Basically, come in, learn, and go do it on your own.

While you’re there, if you have any additional questions about any of the information covered, our Senior Account Executive Mike Ivas will be available to schedule one-on-one consultant appointments, that will personalize all of this new material and help you custom tailor it to your specific business needs. So be sure to keep an eye out for him!

Thanks for reading while I shamelessly promote this event! We’ll get back to the practical advice for your advertising needs next post.

9 Steps to Smart(phone)er Email Marketing.

2011-05-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

According to the latest comScore survey, around 20% of users are reading their email on their Smartphones. If your target market is the professional business user or the youth market, the numbers are skewed higher. Email marketing to this demographic requires additional thought. Follow these 9 steps, and your email has a much better chance of being read.

1. Include a plain text version of every message. It may not be pretty like HTML but it is at least clickable on some platforms and if that causes even one more conversion, it's worth it.

2. Don't overcrowd links, this will help them stand out from one another. With the size of the screen being so small, crowded links become lost links.

3. Don't use large images as links. On some devices, by the time that image has downloaded, the user has already moved on.

4. Use a good subject line to catch people’s attention. Battle of the inboxes happens on mobile too.

5. Use the right alt tags for your images. Some phones, while having the ability to display HTML, won't render images. When this happens, you want "alt" text to show -- giving the user some indication of what your message is.

6. Have a clear call to action. While this is important in all email messages, it's especially important on a mobile device where the screen real estate is limited.

7. Test mobile emails on different smartphones. While action alerts or appeals may look great on the IPhone it could look screwy on a Blackberry. Will HTML5 save the day? Maybe, but until then, test. Then test again. And one more time.

8. Include a mobile style sheet. This will help to increase the number of mobile devices capable of viewing your message.

9. Write good content. This isn't exactly mobile specific.

The biggest lie in marketing: Social Media is Free

2011-05-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

There have been diagrams and blogs written that chart the actual costs required to have an effective social media program in place, and yet I still hear businesses all the time say, “Social media is free! Facebook is free, Twitter is free, yay! We don’t need to spend money on stuff that’s free!”

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Websites are free, too. They are built with HTML, PHP, Javascript, CSS and other various types of code, and it’s all free. You can host it yourself, and all you’ll pay for is the internet connection and the computer it’s hosted on. You can even give your site a name for free through some services, so you don’t have to pay for the DNS, if you don’t mind having a less- than-flashy name. So don’t worry about buying a website, since it’s free. Just go learn some script, and you’ll be selling online in no time.

In fact, there are pages online that will teach you how to code in HTML, for free. There are lots of sites that will tell you how to build websites, and use all of these different styles of coding to create effective websites. They are written by web developers that are more than willing to share their knowledge, so that other web developers who become a little stuck at times can fix their problems.

Now that I’ve shared this little secret, am I worried about being out of a job? Um, no.

When you buy a website from a professional web designer, you aren’t paying for the materials. You are paying for the knowledge of how to create a visually pleasing, information-sharing site that can increase business for your company.

The same is true for social media. Although Facebook, Twitter, etc. are all free, there is still a knowledge base that is required to make these tools effective. There are websites and books written that attempt to teach readers how to effectively market to these channels. And, the same as your website, you can give it a go all by yourself, for free.

But I wouldn’t recommend it.

Social media requires a hands-on approach, and if you want to be successful with it, you need people that are devoted to it. If you want an employee or group of employees to be in charge of your social media programs, that’s a great way to go. I always believe that in-house monitoring of these types of channels is most effective. The caveat is that these staff members must be trained to be effective at their job. They need to be trained by someone who knows how to make the most of these tools.

A couple of examples, just to drive my point home: If I give you some paint brushes, some paint, and a ladder, all for free, can you paint my ceiling to match the Sistine Chapel’s? Or if I give you a pile of wood, and some building materials, can you figure out how to build me a new house? It’s free!

You can pay to have someone else run your social media for your company. You can pay to be trained on how to best use social media for your company. Or you can continue to think it’s free, and SPEND several hours mismanaging a campaign that does not create any additional sales, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and brand awareness. No matter what, you’re paying.

Is your “Social Media Policy” Killing your Social Media?

2011-05-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

A local business that I know of has more than 300 employees. They’ve had a Facebook page since around mid February. How many followers do you think they have?

Answer: 41.

I want you to think about that for a minute. Percentage wise, that means around 13% of their employees are fans of their own business. (It’s less than that, because I am one of the 41, so that I could write this article, and they have more than 300 employees, not exactly 300...)

I can guarantee that this company does not allow Facebook pages on their own network. I’m willing to bet that the company policies regarding Facebook are ironclad, and at least a page long. If handed a copy of their policy, I’m sure it has this phrase repeated several times throughout the communication: “Up to and including termination.”

So, you want to have a thriving social media presence, but threaten your employees with draw and quartering if they mention any detail on the page other than “We had great weather today”. The employees must do any commenting from home, since they cannot access the site at work, even during their scheduled break. You want the benefits that having a Facebook page can give, but you hamstring your employee participation with strong warnings and signed manifestos.

Does any of this look familiar to you? Could you be the company I am writing about? Is it time for a change?

Obviously, there are some safety concerns for Facebook. The last thing you need is for an employee to do something harmful to your company, or misrepresent the company in a way that opens you up to possible litigation. I wish it was all just fun and games. It isn’t. You need a policy that protects your company, and that protects your employees. However, the “Doomsday” policy is not going to work. The “Don’t even think about going online to Facebook at work (But please follow us in your personal time)” approach rarely works, either.

Once again, it all comes back to what you want to achieve, and how to get there. Start fresh. Figure out what you want Facebook to do for your company, and then figure out what you are going to need to get there. Throw away the “COMMENTS MAY RESULT IN INSTANT TERMINATION” style company policy, and build a new one that lets employees know what is acceptable and isn’t for your particular company profile.

Timing is Everything: When to Launch Your Email Campaign

2011-05-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

The day and time you decide to launch your campaign can have an impact on the overall results of your email campaign. This detail may not be as important as the audience you select, the subject line, or the list you are using, but it is a factor. But if you are working to get the maximum results and put everything in your favor then these are commonly accepted as the BEST times to launch your campaign.

The best days (in no particular order):

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays

What’s wrong with the rest of the days?

Chances are, your readers are most likely to be away from their email on Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday, your recipients are recovering from the weekend and will not be in business mode yet. They may have a number of things to do on this day and are not quite interested in offers or solicitations.

On Friday, they are interested in wrapping things up. If someone starts something on a Friday, it may be forgotten over the weekend.

So we are left with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as the best days.

You will want to avoid holidays or any major vacation times.

Does Time of Day Matter?

You want your message to reach your audience at a time when they are going to be most receptive. Research shows that time of day can play a major role.

It's most important for your message to pop up while the recipient is at their computer. The typical email notification generally elicits a Pavlovian response in most to see what the message is. Recipients are immediately engaged and ready to see who is trying to contact them. This timing is ideal.

The key is to try to ensure that email is not just sitting stagnate in the recipient’s inbox first thing in the morning, especially after a holiday. The reason is simple. People tend to have a morning ritual of "cleaning" their inbox from any spam that arrived overnight. You don’t want them to see your message when they are in a deleting frenzy, trying to find anything they can "clean up."

Rather, you want your message to pop up while they are in the middle of a workday. This increases the chances that the recipient will stop and take a moment to read it.

What Are the Best Times to Send Email?

10:00 – 10:30 a.m.

and

1:00 – 1:30 p.m.

Please don't place too much emphasis on this area. It’s often very difficult to ensure the precise time your message goes out. And even if the message is launched at precisely 10 a.m. in one time zone, there are other time zones to consider.

Does Time of Year Matter?

You don’t want to catch someone just after a vacation when they have 200 waiting messages and are looking for stuff they can delete quickly. Most people seem to vacation during the summer months, especially July and August. Try to avoid that time.

Putting it in Perspective

Don’t wait for the perfect time or you will never launch your email campaign. As you’ve probably experienced there are times during the week, month or year when you are extremely busy and not as receptive to offers or messages. Do your best to pick a time when your clients will be most likely to act, but don’t obsess about the launch time.

Checklist: Your First Email Campaign

2011-05-13T10:22:00.001-07:00

Decide how many lists you want. For example, you might want a “News- letters” list, but also a separate “Press & Media Relations” list. Some people set up “Weekly Specials” lists and “Internal Employee Newsletter” lists. The basic idea is that you don’t want to send your weekly specials to someone on your list who might have just been expecting an occasional newsletter.

Decide on your content and frequency. Will you send email newsletters every single month? Do you truly have the time to do that? What will the newsletter be about? Why would anybody want to subscribe to it? What will recipients gain from it?

Get permission. Ask the customers in your database for permission to send them email newsletters, offers and promotions.

Get your privacy policy in order. In particular, issues like “tracking personally identifiable information” or “marketing to children under 13.”

Set up email addresses that you can use as the “Reply-to:” for your campaigns. You might use sales@ or email@. Whatever. Just be sure it works, and be sure a human checks that account. If you use jenny@yourcompany.com, what happens when Jenny leaves the company? You’ll need to change names to the new guy, but spam filters will have already been trained to receive emails from Jenny.

Set up an abuse@ email account. No matter how clean you keep your list, you’ll always get complaints. It’s inevitable.

Set up test email accounts with Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and AOL.

Design your HTML email template. If you’re sending different kinds of communications (sales promotions vs. monthly newsletters vs. how-to’s and tips), you might set up multiple templates for each occasion.

Insert real content into your test campaigns. Don’t just use “lorem ipsum dummy text” when you test campaigns. It’s not accurate, plus spam filters often throw away emails with garbled, nonsensical words in them. Build your plain-text alternative email. Plain-text email has its own pecu- liarities, so you’ll want to get a template for it refined from the beginning. Don’t let plain-text be an afterthought.

Test your templates. And we mean really test them like you’ve never tested before. Send them to friends, family and colleagues. Try the templates in as many different email applications you can. Open your own emails, and click them like crazy. Now go check your reports. Make sure all the tracking works like it should. Click reply and see if you get replies to your account. You want to uncover any embarrassing mistakes before sending to your real customers.

Set up a test list. If you’re like most people, you probably have about three or four email addresses. Why not set up a test list, and send your full campaign to that list?

Make sure you’re subscribed to your own list. Seems obvious, but people often forget. Prepare your website and landing pages for delivery. Before you send, get everything in order. Did you create a copy/archive of the email for your website? Make sure that’s all in place.

Deliver the campaign. Finally!

View stats after sending. You can virtually watch the opens and clicks as they happen. It’s always shock- ing to see how many people open and click in the first few minutes after you send. Then it trails off, but you’ll still get opens and clicks weeks after.

Review performance. After a few days, go back and analyze your reports. How many opens? How many clicks? Compare it to your web traffic logs, and most importantly, to sales. Did the email generate leads or sales? What was the ROI on that campaign?

Plan the next campaign. Use your campaign reports to understand what people clicked and what they didn’t. That should serve as the founda- tion for your next campaign. Maybe you’ll split up your list and segment next time around, or test different subject lines or delivery schedules. Get scientific.

Jumping without a parachute.

2011-05-10T05:31:00.000-07:00

Let’s have some fun today. This blog is concerned with the distinct stages of events. For example, we’ll use:

Skydiving.

Planning stage: Before you jump, make sure you know how to pull the release, and the secondary release. Make sure you have a parachute strapped to your back. Make sure you know the correct way of landing to avoid injury.
Action stage: COUNT TO 10, PULL CORD.

Running with the bulls.

Planning stage: Picking out routes, making sure your sneakers fit appropriately, and knowledge of how to jump over a barrier in case of emergency should all be covered previously to the start of the event. I'd recommend finding someone slower than you to run next to, so you have a measuring tool as to how you are doing...
Action stage: RUN.

For both of these activities, I also recommend knowing all of your prayers, having your will completed, and letting your family know that you love them, just in case.

With both of these examples, there is a point in which you can change your mind. When you are planning, you can decide, “This isn’t really a good idea. You know what? Forget it.” You can look at what you want to accomplish, what your goal is, and weigh out whether the plan of attack is going to work. Once you commit to action, the time for planning is over.

When a bull is bearing down on you, it’s a bad time to think, “Maybe I should wear something other than my red windbreaker…”

With any important decision, there are three distinct stages. The first is the planning. The second is the action, and the third is the debriefing, or evaluation. They are separate entities, and blending them is a recipe for failure. It’s a little too late to still be planning when you are falling from 10,000 feet. It is also too soon to be evaluating how the jump went when still in midair. If your chute doesn’t open, and you’re already calling the jump a success, I think your evaluation system is a little flawed.

Another frequently occurring problem is over planning. There are people that have gone online, read blogs about skydiving, read articles on the best equipment to use, and where the best places are in the world to see the greatest scenery. They may be able to tell you what the ideal plane is for jumping, how to maneuver in the air before releasing your chute, or how to brace for impact in the case of an emergency. They are virtual experts. I say “Virtual” because they have never actually jumped out of a plane, and probably never will, since they are collecting “all of the information” before they act.

People who know everything about a subject without actually doing said subject are not experts; they are researchers.

To bring it back into our world of expertise, make sure you are not blending the stages in your marketing in the same manner. Plan out your marketing. Then do it. Then evaluate. The time for second guessing is before you take action. The time for evaluating is after the event has had enough time for some real answers. Make sure you do things in the right order, and commit to each step completely. The alternative is jumping out of a plane, and hoping that everything just works out.

Announcing Your Presence to the World

2011-05-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about marketing strategies. Many of these are in relation to technology, like QR codes. We’ve discussed different social media tools that businesses should use to forward their brand awareness and increase customer loyalty. Texting, web design, and branding are all popular themes on this site. All of these are important aspects that you need to think about, frequently. However, there could be something hurting your business every day that you walk right by, and never think about.

Your signage looks like this...

Alright, hopefully that’s an overstatement. Let’s face it, perception is reality, and if your business appears to be out-dated, there’s a good chance it’s hurting your bottom line. Let’s pretend a traveler’s car breaks down in a town he’s never been in. He’s going to have to stay a couple of nights while waiting for it to be fixed, and he’s trying to pick out a hotel. There are two within walking distance of the automotive dealer fixing his vehicle. Which one is he going to pick, based on looks alone?

The example above may seem a little extreme, but in reality we do this every day. There are stores that you have never gone in, because their display or signage from the street does not look appealing to you. In these stores you may be missing the deals of a lifetime, and you will never know because they look closed due to horrible signage. Even if a friend stated that there were great deals to be had, some people would still avoid a location due to the effect on their own self image that shopping at a place that looks close to condemned would have on them.

If I accidentally posted your sign as one of my examples, please call us today, so we can schedule a sit down and discuss the drastic overhaul you need!

5 Things You Must Remain Vigilant About, or Your Website Will Seem Outdated.

2011-05-03T06:21:00.000-07:00

You only get a few moments to make a good impression. When a potential customer visits your website, the usability is important, or they will leave and find a better website. On top of this, many users will be turned off by how outdated your site seems. No one visits a website, and says, “Oh, they must be busy selling/servicing their customers, and don’t have time to stay on top of updates. This is where I want to go!” More often, potential customers think, “They can’t even update their website? How good can they be?”

There are five things you need to remain vigilant about, in order for your website to not seem out of date.

1.   THE DATE. Seems like kind of a no brainer, right? But how many websites do you visit, and the copyright date is not current. This potential flaw highlights to your customer that you miss the little details. You can come across as a “Big Picture Only” place. On top of that, the new information you published yesterday automatically seems it could be years old.

2.   The images. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? The last thing you want is for your pictures to be screaming “Out of Date!!!” You can’t call it “Cutting edge” if the person using your product is wearing clothes from 1992. You can’t say that the car for sale “Won’t last long at this price” when there’s a pile of snow near the tire, and it’s May.

3.   The Company History. “About us” is a great tab, as it can provide potential customers a wealth of information to sway their purchasing decision towards your company. It can also give the impression that a company exploded onto the scene, and then screeched to a halt. If your “About Us” section lists impressive details from a couple years ago, and hasn’t changed since, you could be creating the illusion that you haven’t done anything of note recently. Be wary of inadvertently giving the impression that your company stopped growing.

4.   Your “Specials” page. If you can’t keep this current, remove it from your menu. There is nothing worse than showing the great deals someone could have received if they shopped a month ago. No one is impressed by your old sale. Having a running archive of your deals from days past does not show your future customers how good your sales in the future will be.

5.   Customer Testimonials. If your site has these, make sure they are still relevant and recent. There is nothing worse than seeing how great your company was 10 years ago, when your last glowing review was posted. You also probably don't want too many great reviews for products or services you no longer offer. Having a historical testimonial is great, as long as you also have current ones that show you are still a good company to work with!

There’s a reason why the term “yesterday’s news” has a negative connotation. No one wants to read it, just like your site, if you fail to remain vigilant on these 5 steps.

Web Design For Small Business 101

2011-04-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

Looking to finally start a website for your company? Congratulations! There are a couple of things you’ll want to consider before putting any real effort into design or implementation.

1. Get your domain.

The absolute worst thing that can happen to a company is to get the creative juices flowing before getting the name of your website locked in stone. You need to register your site before you worry about any aspect of design. For example, if your company was “Jenny’s Flower Shop”, you had best start searching for a name first. You aren’t going to get www.jennysflowershop.com, since it’s already taken. Therefore, before you start designing graphics that aren’t going to make sense, or have your heart set on a moniker, remember to check this first.

2. Get your concepts.

There is a phrase that makes any web designer cringe, and it is “Oh, and I want it to be able to…” The cringe comes from that word “OH”. Those two letters cause more redesigns, and potentially cost you more money, than any others. When you are going to start building a site, know what you want it to do upfront. Spend some time looking at your competition’s sites. Look at sites that have features you want. There are certain things that can easily be added at the end, and there are others that would require a complete rebuild. Therefore, make sure you have all of your goals cleanly written out.

For example,

• Do you want email attached?

• Do you want to be able to process sales online? Is your site a catalogue of all of your products?

• Do you want features like Live Chat?

• Are you interested in giving the opportunity for customer reviews on your site?

• What social channels do you want tied into your website?

• How often does your page need to change, or is it mostly a static, information based page?

3. Build it.

I strongly recommend (obviously) getting some professional help. As a small business owner, you may be tempted to try and save money and build it yourself. You may decide to call up that nephew that is “really good with computers”, and that helped get a virus off of your computer last year, to build it for you. Although the ability to program is obviously a requirement, you really need someone who has a solid grasp on design, and art, so that your site is visually appealing. You need someone who understands SEO, and can make sure your site is indexed correctly with all of the search engines. That someone needs the skills to market your website out to the masses. There are a lot of small websites for companies that you’ve never heard of right in your town, and that you won’t find in a search engine, because it wasn’t promoted correctly.

Of course, the last step is use it. Nothing frustrates customers more than when you have a stellar website, and you never check your email. When your website is advertising great President’s Day sales, and it’s coming up on the Fourth of July, your customers are shutting you off. Your website is your storefront. Keep it up to date and clean. These steps make your website work for you, instead of the other way around.

Text “WHATSTHIS” to 999999 to win SMS Short Code Marketing!

2011-04-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Chances are, you’ve seen something similar to that at one point or another. The one that I most often see is a company selling ringtones via this method. I know of at least one radio station that uses this method to communicate with fans on their morning show. So, what is it, and how can this form of marketing help your business?

For those that understand what SMS is, this next paragraph doesn’t really matter to you.

For those unaware, SMS is “Short Messaging Service” most often referred to as “Texting” A text message is typically sent from one mobile device to another, although the reality is, this format has changed, and can be sent via several different means. It uses a standard protocol that allows devices to share up to 160 characters.

SMS Short Code marketing takes the innate mobile utility of SMS and enables it to talk to a company in a variety of different ways, and it uses a short code as a receiving device. The “999999” I listed in the title bar will not work, the numbers have to be between 22222 and 899,999, and these numbers are highly regulated by the Common Short Code Administration. You have the ability to lease one of these numbers for 3,6, or 12 months at a time.

Ok, so now that you know what they are, what can you do with them? Basically, there are two outcomes. The customer will send you something, or the customer can send you a request that you will answer with information, whether it is a return SMS, a website link, etc.

Examples:

Text “Davis” to 999999 for additional information!
Text your email address to 999999 to enroll in our mailing list.
Text “Winner” to 999999 to enter into our online giveaway!
Text your question to 999999 for an answer in 15 minutes or less!
Text “Davis” to 999999 download the app!
Text the correct answer to our trivia question to 999999 and win!
Text “Two 4 one” to 999999 for an instant coupon you can use right now!
Text “Vote1”, “Vote2”, or “Vote3” to 999999 for your choice of the winner!

No matter how the customer initiates the interaction, you are guaranteed to have their phone number. This information should be entered into some form of CRM tool. Depending on the call to action that the customer is fulfilling, there will be different information that also should probably go into the CRM.

The opportunities for this type of marketing are growing exponentially. Every week, there are millions of people voting for their favorite dancers, singers, and more on television using some form of SMS Short Code. It is a process that many potential customers feel very comfortable doing. If you would like to look into this for a marketing campaign, text “Info” to … Just kidding. Click on the “Feedback” button on the side.

Reaction to: Most Marketers Plan to Increase Social Media Spend This Year [STUDY] on Mashable.

2011-04-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

http://mashable.com/2011/04/19/marketers-social-media-spend/

According to an article published today in Mashable, 70% of marketers plan to increase their social media budget by more than 10% this year. The primary goal of increasing this budget is to increase Facebook “likes”.

Ugh. Here we go again.

Let’s pretend you create a new Facebook page, and you aggressively market using a major prize giveaway on that Facebook page, and you get 1000 people to click “Like” in just the first month! You give away your winning prize, the contest ends, etc. You post your ads all the time, and your likes slowly begin to decline, as people slowly shut you off. There isn’t a mass exodus, but on average you have someone click “Unlike” once every other day, and no new likes are coming in. A typical status update from your page will have one or less comments. At the end of a six month period, you have 900 followers.

Let’s compare that page to a second concept. You create a new Facebook page, and you run small, interactive contests with lots of small prize, which people need to interact with in order to win. In the first month, you only get an initial 100 people to click “Like”, but you average an extra 3-5 people a week that additionally click like. Your page is growing, and the people that “Like” your site interact with it well. A typical status update from your page will have an average 5 comments. At the end of a six month period, you have 400 followers.

Out of these two options, which would you prefer? According to the primary goal listed above, the first campaign would be the more effective, right?

Likes are the primary goal because there is an obvious number. You can simply look at the increase in the number, and say, “It went up, so therefore I did a good job.” The fact that no additional sales occurred does not matter. The fact that your customer loyalty did not change, and that your customer satisfaction did not change doesn’t matter to “Likes”. If your “Likes” go up, and nothing else does, WHO CARES?

Meanwhile, if your interaction goes up, typically, so do your sales. People that are responding to your status updates, and are interacting with you on your social media sites are also spending more money at your location. They are able to receive better customer service, and will most likely refer you to others more often. This interaction helps to build brand loyalty, and keep your customers spending money with you.

In essence, it boils down to the fact that the number of “Likes” is secondary. Obviously, you need people on your site, but the focus shouldn’t be on arbitrarily achieving them, but rather on making their experience the best possible. Happy people will bring you more “Likes”. Simply buying them with a single time contest gives you “Likes” for a short period of time, but does not necessarily relate to any form of monetary or customer satisfaction gains.

What Is Your Company Goal with Facebook?

2011-04-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

The most common answer to the question “Why get involved with Facebook?” is simply “To engage our customers.” However, what does this mean? Many cannot explain it. Some will mumble about “Brand messaging” or “Creating personality”. Others may have a stock sentence prepared, something along the lines of “To dynamically create a dialogue between the company and our customers in order to achieve higher penetration and marketability in an attempt to forward our brand identity and provide the upmost in customer service.” Whew! I’m almost scared to ask for that sentence to be broken down…

When we are asked, “Should I use Facebook for my company?” the first question we ask is, “Well, why do you use it yourself?” The answer that we hear all too often, unfortunately, is “I don’t. But I think my company should!”

Ouch.

This means that there is no goal set. Other than the fancy buzzword sentence previously mentioned. That means you don’t know why you should enter into social media, other than someone suggesting it as a way of growing. Chances are, six months from the date this question was asked and answered, the company will say, “Social just doesn’t work for us.” Instead, let’s slow it down, and think about it for a bit. Understanding why people are on Facebook is paramount to creating accurate, achievable, and realistic goals.

• Most people are on Facebook to communicate with people they either know now, or knew in the past. It’s typically not to make new friends, or to try new things. It’s a place to come and find your buddies. If your company is thinking of entering into this world, you must understand this principle first.
• Facebook has lots of ads running on the side of the screen. People don’t want to see ads running on their wall, too. There’s a place for everything.
• As a Facebook user, I don’t want to see too much of anyone. I have lots of Facebook Friends, and I want to be able to see what each of them are doing. So if I have someone who posts about nonsense every 15 minutes, chances are I’m blocking them.
• As a Facebook user, I’ll follow pages that have high interest to me, or that a friend of mine asked me to follow. Since I’m limited to how many pages I can follow, I’m not going to follow everything. Especially since it would cut into my ability to see what each one of my friends is doing.

Based on this information, what is your company’s goal by entering into Facebook? If it is to become friends with your customers, and communicate with them on a personal level, so that you can provide additional service to them, that’s ok. If your goal is to double your sales penetration by engaging the masses, spreading brand awareness by targeted marketing, and presenting additional vehicles to populate advertisements, you may be in the wrong place.

Create your goal before “stepping foot” on Facebook. Understand what it is you hope to accomplish, before spending the time, energy, and resources required to create the site. Otherwise, save yourself six months of pain, and resign yourself now to the “Social just doesn’t work” mentality now.

Davis Advertising Purchases Grafton Street Property

2011-04-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

Davis Advertising has purchased the property at 1331 Grafton Street which will become the new home of one the fastest growing agencies in New England.

The 14,000 square-foot building will be completely renovated over the next six months. Once completed, the interior of the building will include a reception area, offices, a state-of-the-art photo studio, several conference rooms, a multipurpose room, a kitchen and large storage areas. The exterior of the property features more than 70 parking spaces. Davis, currently located at 306 Main Street, plans to move into the Grafton Street location by late fall 2011.

“We have experienced tremendous growth as a company and this new facility will provide us with the large space we need to accommodate both our clients and our employees,” said President Andy Davis. “It was also very important for us to remain in Worcester where we’ve been in business for more than 60 years. This space is really the perfect fit for us in many ways.”

The Grafton Street building is conveniently located at the intersection of Route 122 and Route 20 and sits within close proximity to the Massachusetts Turnpike.

(Marketing Trends) Beware Generation Z – or not…

2011-04-12T05:03:00.000-07:00

Although it is always important to look for trends changing between demographics, be cautious of determining your entire marketing strategy based on a stereotypical view of a group. Generation Z, made up of children born after 1992, is highly influential but may lead your marketing decisions astray.

For example, one view of this market states that they have no brand loyalty. Stated to Mashable, by Kathy Savitt:

Companies that expect Generation Z to be loyal based on a carefully crafted brand image and marketing message will find that their effort is wasted. Generation Z simply doesn’t buy it. Instead, the product itself is what’s important, regardless of marketing campaigns.

In this article, she states that Generation Z categorically reject “Badge Brands”. As far as brand “Badges” go, Nike’s stock, although hit with seasonal highs and lows, continues to grow year after year. Anyone who has a young girl in the family knows what an American Girl doll is. Nameplates most certainly do matter just as much to this younger generation.

Another aspect of the supposed gap between Generation Y and Z is the art of self publishing, whether through video or written word. Generation Y started this trend, and taught Generation Z how to do it. The true trendsetters in Generation Y were the pioneers in this aspect of information sharing. Therefore, it is less a gap between the two generations than a continuance, as technology and the tools that Generation Y set up are taught to the next group. These tools have simply been adopted by the masses in Gen Z.

How do you market to this new, younger generation? The same way you did to the generation before them. The difference is, instead of aiming at just the trendsetters, you are speaking to the entire generation. There is no longer a long, trickle-down method of what’s “In.” Trends happen on a daily basis, no longer in weeks.

For proof of this, look at two different recent events in “Social media”. For the Gen Z, you had an explosion around a 13 year old girl, Rebecca Black. For Gen Y and X, look at the explosion on Twitter regarding the “Winner” Charlie Sheen. There is no difference to how quickly these two trends happened, and it was based on the same technology.

Older generations build fear around Generation Z, since they basically will take what was considered somewhat fringe, used mostly by trendsetters from Generation Y, and it will be completely mainstream. Therefore, your marketing does not need vast overhauls, unless of course, you couldn’t speak to Generation Y, either…

Don't Rush to the Farmer's Market

2011-04-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

Google's Farmer Update (officially called: Panda Update) at the end of February forced a lot of content producing Web properties to take a closer look at their model and how it fit into Google's new algorithm -- aimed at improving quality. Content farms such as howtodothings.com and mahalo.com, both known for churning out poorly written content, loaded with keywords, that secured top listings in Google were penalized severely. In fact, Mahalo was hit so hard that it had to eliminate 10% of its workforce shortly after the change.

The takeaway here is for anyone looking to rank remotely high in search results is to avoid shallow, unoriginal, poorly written or useless content. Sites who do this -- the same sites that were part of the small fraction of sites effected by this change -- are just a couple of steps away from being a spammer.

Building Hype

2011-04-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

Guest Written by Chris Gregoire

Every year, I can guarantee a certain discussion happens at my inlaw’s Thanksgiving dinner, between a couple of my sister-in-laws and my wife. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

“So you want to leave here at 5:00?”
“No, I want to get there at 5:00. We’ll have to leave here at 4:30ish.”
“Last year, we got there at 5:30, and there weren’t any parking spots, do you think 5:00 will be early enough?”
“Hmm… Maybe not. Maybe we should leave here at 4:00…”

The hype surrounding Black Friday is amazing. My personal dollar value on sleep traditionally keeps me in bed, as waking up that early simply isn’t worth the cost. There are others who see Black Friday as the absolute best purchasing experience ever.

A challenge for any business is to build even half that level of hype on a random day, at a regular time. It seems as though every other weekend is a “One Day Sale” at one store or another, and typically, the results are not spectacular. So the question remains, “How can a business create a level of hype around April 6th?”

First of all, Black Friday happens once a year, so there is plenty of time to start building the hype up. A random weekday or weekend sale is usually promoted for less than a week in advance of said sale. A business owner cannot expect the same results without the same level of advance notice. Therefore, if a business is looking to have an absolute blowout sale, it needs a long gestation period to allow shoppers plenty of time to plan for the sale.

Several large companies that capitalize on Black Friday sales “Leak” information via websites, or their social media. As a company trying to build a huge sale, rather than stating all of the sale prices, allow for a “Leak”. Give one absolutely incredible deal a little press, and let it percolate. There is no need to show your entire sale until there are people available to spend money. This can stop online shopping comparisons, and can limit competition from price matching sales prices in advance.

Another aspect that you can bring to a sale is the sense of urgency. My wife would prefer to wake up around 9:00 on days when she doesn’t have to work. In order for her to meet up with her shopping cronies, she needs to leave our house at 3:30. The “Early Bird” specials typically end around regular opening time. A business looking for a heightened sense of urgency should not have a sale that lasts all weekend. Set it for a short time period. Nothing happens unless someone gets excited, and without a mad house, it’s hard for some people to get excited. If it is too convenient, people will not set aside specific time to visit. You need to make customers plan on taking advantage of your sale, not just accidentally wandering into it.

So far, the marketing tools listed have all been traditional. Imagine the potential when non-traditional marketing tools are introduced. With social media backing, and some guerrilla marketing campaigns in place, a business could effectively create a “Black Friday” style sale on any random Wednesday.

Guerrilla marketing: Ads with Bite

2011-04-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

For those who do not really understand the concept of guerrilla marketing, here is the definition from Wikipedia:

The concept of guerrilla marketing was invented as an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Typically, guerrilla marketing campaigns are unexpected and unconventional, potentially interactive, and consumers are targeted in unexpected places. The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz, and consequently turn viral. The term was coined and defined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla Marketing. The term has since entered the popular vocabulary and marketing textbooks.
Guerrilla marketing involves unusual approaches such as intercept encounters in public places, street giveaways of products, PR stunts, or any unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. More innovative approaches to guerrilla marketing now utilize cutting edge mobile digital technologies to engage the consumer and create a memorable brand experience.

Ok, so that’s the technical definition. Let’s get real.

Back in September of 2006, CBS did an investigative report that said the average person may see up to 5,000 ads a day. Then again, there were only 12 million Facebook users, and Twitter had only been around for 5 months. Today, people are bombarded with advertisements on the internet, television, radio, their cell phone applications, in print, signage, etc. That’s a lot of advertisements to digest, I don’t think it is possible for anyone to take notice of all of these ads.

Guerrilla advertising tries to break through the “noise”, and grab the customer’s attention by some type of shock value. Let’s pretend you walk past the same bronze statue every day on your way to work. It becomes a part of the scenery, and you don’t really notice it anymore. If, however, that statue all of a sudden was painted neon green, you’d certainly notice it.

Guerrilla marketing is that neon color in your regularly dull day. Here, in picture format:

-- Versus --

Which ad is going to catch your attention? You are used to seeing print ads in a bus terminal. You are not used to seeing plush furniture. Even though the sign is small (It’s the yellow card on the end table, advertising Ikea) the overall effect is going to catch the attention of passersby, and break them from the norm.

Many people think that Guerrilla marketing needs to be edgy. That is not necessarily true. No one would consider the picture on the right as edgy. It just has to stand out in a non-traditional way. It must be unexpected, so that it creates some reason to pay attention to it.

In order to build a successful guerrilla marketing plan, you must think in traditional ways first.
1.   Does this ad maintain brand image?
2.   Is there a concrete call to action that my customer will understand?
3.   Are we using this opportunity to emphasize brand awareness?
4.   Will it capture the target audience’s attention?

These are all questions you must ask yourself of traditional marketing, and you must consider them for non-traditional as well. Then, you’ve got to find your “Wow”. Using your product, what will your “Wow” be? What can you do that will distract consumers from their daily routines enough to pay attention to you? As is the case with social media, how will you engage your audience?

Bad Publicity? GoDaddy.com’s CEO decisions.

2011-03-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

Twitter exploded on Thursday afternoon, with the trending tweet of GoDaddy CEO. This was based on a video of Bob Parsons, the CEO of GoDaddy.com shooting a an elephant in Zimbabwe. Time.com had the highest Top tweet, stating “Shoots an elephant for a good cause. Too bad he’s wrong” with a link to their article. The other top tweets were calls to move your domain off of GoDaddy.com, and onto other domains.

Among the other news tied into this trending tweet were the several companies that are jumping on board. One domain hosting company, called Namecheap, is offering to make donations to African elephants on your behalf if you sign up with them in the very near future.

This blog is not commenting on whether what he did was right or wrong. We are curious, as far as a marketing decision is concerned, was this a bad move?

GoDaddy.com marketing, for the last several years, has been based around attractive woman taking their clothes off. The question of whether Danica Patrick is ever going to bare all on GoDaddy’s site is always in question. Is there target demographic, who is not offended by the sexual material of their advertising campaigns now, going to be hugely offended by the CEO killing an elephant?

Putting any moral judgement aside, and looking at this incident as a strictly marketing opportunity, do you feel that Bob Parson’s video is going to hurt Go Daddy? The ideas of “No news is good news” and “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” are no longer true, and several companies have benefitted from and had losses caused by viral campaigns for or against them on different social media channels.

What is your opinion?

Newest Audio Advertising Technology

2011-03-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

Last night, while watching television, I saw an ad for Old Navy that caught my attention. I was so used to seeing the Super Mannequins, when a music video came on, I assumed it was for a different product. Instead, it was Old Navy, completely redoing its current marketing strategy.

This alone would not have warranted a blog entry. Companies change their marketing structure all the time. What snared my attention was the “Shazam” logo appearing along the bottom of the commercial, with instructions to identify this song on your mobile phone for additional information. In other words, Old Navy has done a cross promotion with Shazam, and has in essence created something new:

An audible QR Code. Neat!

For those that don’t know, Shazam is an application for mobile phones that allows the user to identify a playing song’s artist, name, album, etc. It allows the user to immediately purchase the song, and more. You no longer need to say, “What’s the name of this song?” or wait in hopeful anticipation for the DJ on the radio to tell you. The software has been out for a little while now; it by itself is not new. There are other apps that do the same process; Shazam just happens to be a real popular one.

What is the implication of this new usage? Companies already pay royalties for music when they want to use it in an advertisement. Imagine not only having usage rights, but having the ability to virtually marry your product onto a song. Microsoft paid $10 million for usage of the Rolling Stone’s “Start Me Up” for the release of Windows 95. Imagine if any time anyone heard the song, and had Shazam look it up, it brought your phone to the Microsoft website? Think of the connections that could occur.

Could this become the new wave of advertising? Rather than simply using the music as background, it would become a link point to whatever the artist is currently willing to promote to? The possibilities are amazing…

I can just see it now, listening to a 50 Cent song, and my phone asks me if I want to order a case of Vitamin Water. Perhaps Shazam on a particular Counting Crows song would order me a taxi?

What interesting combinations can you think of?

The Sky Is Falling: The End of Social Media?

2011-03-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

About once a month or so, an article comes across my desk regarding a company that has put faith in a social media channel and not had overwhelming success. Not a month can go by without someone handing me or emailing me an article about how even though the Facebook campaign got lots of attention, the business witnessed a decline in sales for several quarters in a row.

Is this the end of Social Media?

With any luck, the buzzword “Social Media” is… But the concept isn’t going anywhere.

In all of the articles I’ve read regarding “Social Media is Dying”, none take the time to define “Social Media”. In the most basic definition of the term, it means one person communicating with another in a public forum that anyone who observes can also comment on. Before it became a buzzword, there were plenty of examples of this. There were chat rooms on AOL that were a form of Social Media. The bulletin board hanging up in many offices, where people can post “Free Kittens”, “Ice Cream Social Next Tuesday”, or any other communication, is by definition “social media”.

This type of social media has been around for many many years, and it isn’t going anywhere.

So when the industry gurus speak of “Social Media Peaking”, they are typically discussing the software versions. The Facebook, Twitter, etc. ways of communicating between people. Are these going away?

Once again, the answer is a resounding, “Nope.” They are an effective means of communicating with a large group of people. The individual user has no reason to stop using facebook, as an individual. I was able to wish someone I haven’t talked to in ten years “Happy Birthday” the other day. There’s no way I’d pick up a phone and do that. From a personal user point of view, I don’t see the social media channels going away.
So, whatever can these industry experts mean, when they say, “The Social Media Fad is Ending”?

I believe that they mean, useless, fad based Social Media is going out. There are several social media sites that are not social; they exist on social platforms, but do nothing except promote ads. Interaction is scarce at best, and pointless in many cases. There is no reason to visit any of these sites; they provide no information, stirring content, or spark any intellectual debate. Look at your own list of social media sites that you personally subscribe to. How many of these provide advertisement content only? How many are not able to help you with service issues? Are these the ones that you are moving away from? I know these are the ones that I am “Unlike”ing.

Companies that understand engagement, and that work to constantly create bonds between the company and the consumer will succeed. These companies reward users with both positive reinforcement and with increased service, and will not only survive but thrive. These companies realize that social media is not simply an advertising tool, but something more. Social Media that is complex, completely ad driven, and based more on the company’s “Brand Message” than on the consumer, will continue to be edged out. If your company is considering Social Media as a way of putting ads in more places, then you may wish to pull back.

“Social Media©” may be in trouble, but the rest of social media is here to stay.

Do you know what to do with this QR Code ->

2011-03-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

I remember years ago, before there were smartphones, visiting a doctor’s office, and grabbing a magazine. I had about 15 minutes of wait time, and although the chair looked like it had some padding, I believe it was simply an elaborate paint job, that gave the appearance of a cushion, when in reality it was cold steel. I was flipping through a magazine, and came across an ad for a product. It looked interesting, and the call to action was “Please visit http://www.thecompanywebsite.com/thiscurrentpromotion for additional information.”

I had only a few options:

Find a pen and paper, and write down the webaddress to look it up later.
Smuggle the magazine out under my jacket on my way out the door.
Be that guy that rips pages out of a magazine.
Hope that I’d remember what it was.

I’m not the type to steal the magazine, and destruction of other’s property is never a viable option. I don’t typically carry a pen with me, and it seemed like it was too much work to bother the busy nurse at the desk for one, so I went with option 4.

Needless to say, I never went to the website.

Enter in a new era. A smart advertiser now would have attached a QR code to the ad, and made it so that I didn’t even have to type the web address into my phone. I would have simply scanned the code, and presto! I would have been on the site the author wanted me to visit.

QR (Quick Response) Codes are wonderful little graphics that have hundreds of uses. Basically, they allow the creator of the code to build a graphic that stores the text of a website’s URL. The person with the scanner can “read” the image, and the scanner will direct their device to open up a particular webpage. Every smartphone has a different app that can do this, and so every smartphone user can be automatically linked to whatever the QR code points to, with the push of a button.

These little codes are popping up everywhere. They can direct users to websites, to watch videos, to social media sites, and more. They can link a mobile phone to anywhere on the web, simply by scanning. Looking to increase traffic or customer engagement? Take a look at QR codes.

There are so many different uses for these codes, it does not make sense to try and create an example that would fit everyone. The beauty of these codes is that they are completely customizable for every situation. For ideas on how to use these codes for your business, please feel free to contact us. For a free PDF guide on these wonderful codes, click here.

The Next Level of Geo Social Tools

2011-03-18T05:31:00.000-07:00

Foursquare, Facebook Places, and GoWalla are great for letting people know where you are, right at that moment, or where you’ve been. The next generation Geo Social Tools will enable you to know where you are going.

There are several new applications out currently that small businesses need to hone in on, sooner rather than later. The three that look the most promising are crowdbeacon, imup4, and ditto. These new style geo-location tools enable the user to plan for where they are going to go, in both a social manner among their group of friends, as well as from everyone connected.

For example, Jane Smith has an iPhone, and is a member of crowdbeacon. When she signed up, she stated she was a local expert in Worcester MA’s dining scene. A random user, named Fred posts, “Where can I get a good steak around here?” Jane, as a local expert, can respond and give a suggestion, such as, “I prefer Restaurant X. Great service, too!” Fred’s friends on crowdbeacon can give their opinions as well, stating things like, “Restaurant Y is the best in Worcester. Give that a try tonight!” One may respond, “Hey Fred, you’re in Worcester tonight? Let’s meet up at Restaurant Z!”

That’s nice for the person to person, but the bigger advantage goes to the small business in Worcester who has signed up. They can automatically say, “We are the best place to get a great steak in Worcester! And because you asked, you can have 5% off too!” Small businesses can enter in keywords to search for, so that someone who does not exactly specify “steak” will still show up under keywords such as restaurant, burger, food, etc..

Friends can use these tools to set up meeting places. Let’s pretend for a moment that a group of people are trying to settle on a seafood restaurant. Using this tool, they can discuss where they are interested in going. On top of that, restaurants can chime in, and give reasons for the group to go to a specific location. Forget calling your friends, and trying to guess where the best meal and deal is. Instead, communicating with this type of app may make the restaurants battle over who is going to provide the best service to you that evening.

All of these apps are in the very early stages, and with small followings, which means their effectiveness is still lacking. It will take some time for the concept to hit home with everyone. Switching from “Where were you” to “Where would you like to be” makes an amazing amount of sense. Better to plan ahead, rather than simply learn what you may have missed.

Facebook’s New Discounted Deals Approach: Peer Pressure at its Finest.

2011-03-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

According to Bloomberg, Facebook will soon be rolling out a new test service that will allow consumers to buy discounted, one-time offers similar to the services offered by Groupon.

Groupon does this via email, which means that it is a one on one conversation between the consumer and Groupon if the customer chooses to take the deal. Bringing this discussion over onto Facebook is completely up to the customer, which means he or she can choose to talk about the wonderful deal that he or she received, but is in no way obligated to do so. The way that Facebook shares information, chances are, the customer that takes Facebook up on a deal is going to automatically share this information with all of his or her friends.

Imagine if there was a 50 inch flat screen on sale for $200. It’s two weeks before the Super Bowl weekend, and a group of friends will be gathering around at John Smith’s house to watch the game. John’s friends could see the sale, and send John a message, saying, “Hey John, look at this deal. Time to replace that 14 inch b&w set before the big game!” General ribbing takes place, and John buys the television. Ads would fly around, some taken as jokes, some as legitimate suggestions, and the consumer and the seller wins.

Here’s another example. A great deal comes along, and you, the customer, take advantage of it. Your Facebook status is automatically sent out to all of your friends with “John Smith just bought a $150 day spa visit for $20.00! You too can take advantage of this!” Since it’s a great deal, six or seven of John’s friends also go and buy it. And five or six of each of their friends also takes advantage of this excellent deal. You can see how this is a great sales model.

Proponents of this service on Facebook will certainly have no issues with this. The answer heard from them regarding the lack of privacy involving the purchase will most certainly be “So what? If I chose to get a great deal on a local business’ service, why wouldn’t I want to share this with all of my friends? Wouldn’t I want to offer this same benefit to everyone that I know, if it’s a great deal!”

Except that maybe, just maybe, you don’t want your wife to know that the spa day you got for her birthday, a $150 value, you bought for $20, on her birthday during your lunch break at work, when Facebook kindly reminded you it was her birthday in the first place.

I’m just guessing.

This is not to say that it is a bad idea. The structure of this form of socialized selling is an excellent idea, one that has the potential to really help small businesses capture more customers through word of mouth. Depending on the pricing requirements, and the commission rates paid to Facebook, this has the potential of replacing services like Groupon.

What other potential pitfalls do you see in completely socializing your purchases?

A little Social Recognition Goes a Long Way

2011-03-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

Companies use social media to promote their businesses in several different ways. Some use it to create customer loyalty, and provide promotions to their customer base. Some use it to show a more “personal” side to their business, by showing they care about the world around them by offering support to the community. Others use social media to showcase their expert knowledge on particular subjects, to enable customers to feel confidence that they are working with the best professionals in the field.

One of the questions we are asked most often is, “Where can I find more content for my social media channels?” Today, the answer is, “Your employees.”

I don’t mean for you to ask your people what to post. I’d guess that you already go to them for ideas of what to post. I mean, post about your people. Do you have an employee that has been with your company long enough to celebrate a milestone with the company? Has one of your employees recently earned a promotion? Have you hired anyone new? These work related accomplishments should be praised on your social media sites.

Posting about work accomplishments of your employees has many benefits:

Gives the employee recognition, and shows them that you acknowledge their accomplishment and are willing to praise them publicly.
Gives your employees a reason to visit your social media sites or platforms, which will increase internal traffic of these sites.
Allows people outside of your organization to see that you as a company care about your employees.
Provides an opportunity for those employees being recognized to be congratulated by other users.

For example, if you were to post “Congratulations John Smith for 20 years of service! Thank you!” on your Facebook page, what could happen? John Smith might go onto Facebook, and like that comment, sharing it with all of his friends and family. Some of your employees may also comment, saying “Way to go John!” and share their comments with all of their friends. Your comment, which is one that you are perfectly willing to make, can in turn bring additional fans to your page. Not to mention the benefits already listed.

You may also want to congratulate your employees on their personal achievements. If a member of your staff recently gave birth, or has gotten married, for example, these joyful occasions can earn you some karma points. It all comes back to making your social media page social.

For more advice on social media content, email us today.

Maximizing Your Print Ad

2011-03-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

Do not buy into the hype, and believe for an instant that “Print Ads are dead.” When there are no longer newspapers, magazines, billboards, or paper and ink left in the entire world, print will be dead. Maybe. Until then, print is very much alive. If you think print media is dead, chances are you aren’t capitalizing on what it can do for you.

Social media has become a leading form of advertising because it interacts with a customer in a way that traditional print could not. You need your print advertising to cause some interaction between the customer and your company. I’m not saying your ads should feature paper doll cutouts, Sudoku puzzles, or hand puppets. I am saying that your advertisements should be the beginning of a conversation, not simply a statement.

A couple of quick suggestions:

Incorporate your social media pages into your ads, so that interested readers can see you in a social atmosphere, if they so choose.
Create custom landing pages for your ads, rather than simply providing your regular website. If something on your print advertisement made them go to your website, you should focus their attention on that particular product or service, not simply dump them onto your homepage.
Incorporate a call to action. Do you want customers to visit your website? Then tell them to. Do you want to have them come into your store? Give them a special coupon, and invite them in.
Make sure you are imparting something on the reader. Ads that are simply for product awareness are fine, but ads that move readers to become customers are better.

Just for fun, I’m going to provide two lines of text. Obviously, in a print ad, especially one this short, there would be graphics involved, and the graphics would steer the conversation just as much as the text. However, for simplicity’s sake, we’ll pretend that the images and layout of these two ads is exactly the same. The only differences are the text.

SAVE SAVE SAVE Best prices best selection best service. You will not find a better price anywhere. SAVE SAVE SAVE Call xxx-xxx-xxxx now to speak with a professional, or come in today!
Best Prices ever! Check out the comparison at www.yourbusiness.com/pricewars See what others are saying about this deal at www.facebook.com/yourbusiness Call xxx-xxx-xxxx to discuss your specific needs, or come in today!

Not only does #2 provide two separate links to begin a conversation with the customer, it also incorporates a way to see how effective the print ad is, by capturing readers on a specific landing page. I don’t think anyone would disagree that #2 was the better option.

Is it time to update your print catalog or marketing structure?

Are you Risking the Boot From Facebook?

2011-03-02T12:43:00.000-08:00

OUCH!

Pick the item that can have your page shut down on Facebook:

Enter everyone that likes your page automatically into a giveaway for a free oil change.
Notify your winner by a wall post, saying “Congratulations Mr. Smith, you won a free oil change!”
Have people post a status update of “My auto dealer rules!” in order to win a free oil change.

And the answer is: ALL THREE.

Facebook has rules in place that make sure any contest you run could be run on a more traditional website. You are not allowed to use any of the cool functions that are Facebook specific to facilitate your promotion.

All contests must have a disclaimer, releasing Facebook from everything having to do with the outcome, entry, or qualifications of the promotion.

Your Facebook promotion must be in a third party application. For those less informed, that means it has to be on its own tab, not built by Facebook. Pages like your wall, info, or photos are pages that Facebook built for you. In order to be compliant, you need to add your promotion onto your site using the “New Apps” section of the “Edit Page” feature.

Understand, these rules are in place to protect Facebook. The last thing that Facebook wants is to expose themselves legally because a company used Facebook to promote a contest. They do not want lawsuits against them. Imagine sitting in a courtroom, and hearing “Well, on FACEBOOK, Company X said I’d get new car if I "Liked" their page. FACEBOOK shouldn’t let Company X say that if it’s not true. Therefore, FACEBOOK should have to give me my Porsche now, since that’s where I read it.”

Does this mean that the Facebook Police are going to come after you if you break their guidelines, or close down your page? Chances are, unless you have a large following, or break them in a major way, your indiscretions will not attract their attention. I recommend against gambling on the fact that you can get away with breaking them.

For a complete list of the rules, click here.

Different type of advice.

2011-03-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

We often give you advice on this blog, on how to better your social media presence, your SEO, and other marketing ideas. Today, we're going to give you a different type of advice: Financial!

Okay, maybe that's not entirely true. We did want to share this video that we put together for Webster First Federal Credit union with you, though. Enjoy!
We have a full video production center, so if you're looking to expand your advertising into video, whether for the internet or television, contact us today.

IS SEO Dead?

2011-02-22T07:39:00.000-08:00

Dead? No. Evolving? You betcha.

Last week Google launched an upgrade to its search engine, adding social results for users signed in with their Google accounts. In addition to traditional website search results, searchers will start seeing results from their friends on Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc.

Where's Facebook? Facebook won't give access to its social data as they want to compete with Google to be the leader of search in the coming years. Because of this, Google has tried to work with just about every other social platform to make the search more social.

For a better understanding of these changes, check out this video from Google:

With this new take on search, rank is officially dead as a metric for companies to obsess over. It doesn't matter if you rank high for a certain keyword -- Google is scaling personalized/social search.

What Does This Mean?

It means that everyone who searches on Google will see a different set of results, based location, search history and connections across major social media platforms.

It also means that companies need to be more active on social media. The number of connections you have on different social media platforms now directly correlates to the number of people you can possibly reach through Google search results.

What Should You Do?

Stop worrying about whether or not you have enough relevent keywords crammed into each page on your Website. Instead, focus your energy on creating rock solid content, and dispersing it through the different social media channels.

What do you think about Google's new search?

SEO and President’s Day!

2011-02-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

After you read this blog, type the letters “PRE” into Google today, and see what pops up as suggestions. You will see President’s Day, and President’s Day 2011. Google’s suggestions change based on what people are currently searching for, and so it is a safe bet that if you do the same experiment in June, you will have a completely different list of suggestions.

What does that mean to you? It means that you need to be set up to capture all of this extra traffic, that’s what!

Create a custom landing page, with President’s Day specials. Make sure that the page is titled appropriately, and that your meta data and page content are geared towards capturing the attention of search engines on this holiday. Creating additional pages for each holiday is always a good idea, since it keeps your page fresh. Do not simply change the graphics on your homepage to suit the sale; chances are this will not get picked up by search engines.

If you run a lot of Google Adwords campaigns, add President’s Day into your description for this weekend. I am not suggesting completely changing all of the ads, but incorporate “President’s Day” into the text under your ad, as well as adding a couple of new keyword combinations.

Lastly, remember to answer your phones, and greet your customers appropriately. Every customer should be welcomed with a “Happy President’s Day”. Even if you do not do any special pricing in your line of business for this holiday, simply mentioning it implies that the customer is receiving a better deal. I know this last part has nothing to do with SEO, it’s just sound business advice.

And Happy President’s Day!

Social Media for the Little Guy

2011-02-16T10:53:00.000-08:00

There are lots of books out there to learn how to build a social media site. Unfortunately, the majority of them are written for large companies. It seems like they all start with the same steps:

Go, and listen to what is already being said about your company on the social web.
Chart what people in your industry are saying about you.
Create lists of the positive, negative, and neutral statements about your company by industry insiders and customers.

But what if there is no mention of your company? You do a Twitter or SocialMention.com search, and nothing comes up. I can already hear small business saying, “No one’s talking about me; I guess have no place in social media,” and packing it in before they begin.

I would argue that much like David and Goliath, there are some advantages to being the small, unmentioned business. Of course, if you don’t start your new presence the right way, you are sunk right from the start. If you haven’t already read the “Starting Social Media from Scratch” series, please take the time to now.

For those that went and read the series, Welcome back. Hope you found it educational.

Continuing on… As a small business, you have advantages that the larger companies do not. First of all, you have a larger desire to handle customer service better. You understand that every customer, happy or sad, is how you make money; you don’t think in terms of “Hourly wage”, or even “Salary”. As a small business owner, there’s no such thing as “just doing your job”; you know that any loss of service directly corresponds to the loss of your money.

You have the ability to see every comment about your company, and to respond. You aren’t going to have to sort through thousands a day, and try to figure out which issues to address first. You can handle them one at a time. You have the ability to go and start actual conversations with your page as your identity. The small business has every advantage to build a loyal online gathering.

Given the option as a user, I would rather comment on a smaller social media page, where I can ask a question and receive an answer, or leave a comment that will be addressed. On a large, corporate social media site, filled with both happy comments and angry bashings, my question is more likely to be ignored, since the moderators are too busy putting out fires all over their page.

If you successfully start a social media campaign from scratch, as a “Little Guy” you have more advantages to make it a useful tool than a big lumbering corporation. Just remember to stay social.

Increasing Facebook Fan Base Easily?

2011-02-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

Red pens are fun.

There is an overwhelming amount of information floating out there in cyberspace regarding how to grow your Facebook page. A lot of this information is extremely repetitive and mostly common sense. Of course you want to promote your Facebook page via print material displayed at your location and in your printed ads. Obviously, you are going to update your email signature to include the link to your Facebook page. Everyone knows that they are going to send out an email to their email and Ezine subscribers, informing them that you are now on Facebook. Are there any ideas out there that haven’t been mentioned by every marketing company on the planet?

Sure there are, but they require work, which is why they are not commonly mentioned… Let’s look at a couple of the previously listed ideas first, and then we’ll begin to discuss the heavy lifting.

You can post on Twitter one hundred times a day, “Follow me on Facebook!!!” for a month straight and you aren’t going to gain any followers. Email every customer you’ve ever collected, and inform them of your new status, and you may pick up a follower or two. These commonly listed approaches to “Increase Your Facebook Fan base” typically show small results. Why? Because they go against the principles of “Social”.

Stop thinking that if you tell people to do something, or check out something, they are going to do it or check it. Do you know how much money has gone into television marketing where a little lizard tells you that fifteen minutes can save you 15 percent? According to SwiftEconomics, $800 million was spent just last year. According to Geico they have 10 million policy holders. That means I have pretty good odds if I bet you haven’t called yet. Just being told what to do does not create action.

Forget your business page for a moment, and think about your personal Facebook account. What was the last comment you made to another person? It was probably congratulatory, consolatory, or humorous. I would assume there was no call to action or offer for savings. I doubt anyone posted “I’m having car trouble. First one to comment with a solution gets a free $5.00 gift certificate to Dunkin Donuts!” Or, in response to a “I’m having car troubles” posting by a friend, said “Go to Thisdealer.com right now to schedule your maintenance today!”

The point is, it’s a lot of work to treat your business like it is a person, and there are no easy solutions. You can't just “Add a link on your personal profile.”

Want to increase your fans? What types of pages would YOUR business be a fan of? Go, and follow those sites. Comment on their postings. Do not advertise, simply add to the discussions. If your Facebook page starts showing up on other Facebook pages, and is adding meaningful, interesting information, people will start to check you out. That is how you build a following of people. Although it is a lot more work, the concept is easy. Listen to others, then speak, then respond again. Eventually, people will start to talk to you, and follow you. It takes a lot of work to start the avalanche, but once it’s going, it can snowball, as long as you stay involved.