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Getting the message across: Best practices for Multi-channel Marketing

01/17/2013 by

We’ve all seen the people who have stacks of papers, folders, and a dozen different electronic devices all spread out across a desk. Sure, they might just be messy, but often they’re some of the busiest people in an office, keeping track of hundreds of different things all at once. They might be the jacks-of-all-trades to whom everyone goes when they have a problem they just can’t answer.

Or, they might just be a marketer.

When it comes to Internet marketing, it’s always been helpful to be a multitasker. This is especially true if have a lot of clients. You can imagine the disaster that would happen if you cross-posted a status update to the wrong client’s Facebook account. No matter how quickly you got the rogue post deleted, you know someone would capture it. You would then have to deal with the public relations mess you created, and then you would likely lose a client.

Handling that to-do list

Cross-channel marketing isn’t as easy as hopping between social media platforms and making posts. Marketers could be handling email newsletters, SMS messages, social media accounts, websites – and all for multiple clients. If that sounds a little something like your reality, you may need to get some help from experts in cross-channel marketing, so you can always represent your clients in the best light.

Another advantage of getting some professional guidance is that you’re able to track how effective your marketing campaigns are. You want to know who’s reading your SMS blasts, your tweets and posts – and which form of communication is most lucrative for your client.

Sorting things out

Organization is your best tool in any marketing campaign. There are tools and software that can help you stay on top of marketing campaigns and allow you to focus on the platforms that appeal most to the audience you hope to reach.

Cross-channel marketing can be intimidating – especially if you’re someone who’s new to the world of hashtags, memes and viral videos. It takes some expertise to launch a marketing campaign across multiple platforms. You have to understand when to post, what to say, how to say it and how to time your message for the best results. Many companies report that they simply don’t have adequate staff to accomplish such a goal, or that their staff doesn’t have the knowledge to undertake such a campaign.

By bringing in an industry expert to help you analyze and fine-tune your cross-channel marketing, you can be confident that you’re getting the best results and making your clients happy.

Filed Under: Social Media, Strategy & Business Tagged With: , , , , ,

The New Face of Email Marketing

11/01/2012 by

In a recent article on the Business 2 Community blog, a contributing writer posited that a consumer was like a gorilla and you, a business owner, have a banana you need to give to the consumer as quickly as possible. Whether or not you agree with that statement, something about it does ring true: the faster you get products and services to customers, the faster your company profits. But how do you get your products and services out there? The answer to that question is well-known: advertising. However, in today’s world the advertising sector is changing. It’s no longer solely about TV commercials, billboards or magazine prints. You need more than that if your brand and products are going to stick in a consumer’s mind. Often, that extra factor comes in the form of email marketing.

Effective marketing, no matter the form, has always centered on the consumer and how the product or service affects their life. In order to have effective marketing, a marketer must be able to show how the world is connected and how their products or services can truly make a difference. Those principles still apply to email marketing, but there are other considerations to keep in mind. Here are some effective ways to use email marketing in today’s world.

1. Stories and testimonies

Who doesn’t enjoy a great story and personal triumph or someone overpowering a great fear or accomplishing a goal? Stories connect us as people and there is power in that. Reach out to the people that use your products and services. Find someone with an amazing story and ask if he or she would like to share it with the rest of your customers. By doing this, you’re allowing others to see what you are doing to help the world.

2. Engage

Don’t just write an email and then hit send. Think about the consumer that will read the email and how they will respond to it. As with other online marketing campaigns, be sure to wrap up your email with a call to action. What do you want this email to accomplish? What do you want your customers to do after reading it? Make it easy for a consumer to find their way to your company’s product page or to a landing page, alleviating the need for them to navigate several screens before finding the one they want. Encourage your audience to interact with you, whether they are responding to a survey, visiting your website or talking to customer service. Email is a way to establish relationships.

3. Format for mobile

In today’s world, almost everyone is constantly on the go, which means that people often check email from a mobile device. One of the biggest mistakes a company can make when sending out an email is not to format it for mobile devices. Doing so means keeping the layout simple, using a single-column format and limiting the amount of actions it takes to resize. Keep these things in mind as you are designing, writing and sending out email.

4. Use videos

Videos are a proven method for communicating with consumers. Like stories and testimonies, videos are way to show consumers how your products and services connect people all over the world. However, you shouldn’t merely embed the video in the email. By doing this, you aren’t directing customers to your website. Instead, simply insert a photo or screenshot from the video that redirects to your landing page when the reader clicks on it. The less customers have to do in order to reach your website and view your products, the better.

Email marketing is all about effective communication. Don’t bombard your readers with a lot of email; readers will send that message to a trash folder without being opened or unsubscribe from your communiques. Instead, make focused and targeted videos that readers will enjoy. Relate to the consumer and show how your products and/or services are vital to them. Don’t just provide empty copy about a product. Show your audience how that product can improve their lives.

Filed Under: Blogging, Strategy & Business Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Tweak and Repeat

10/25/2012 by

Any business can apply multi-channel marketing, but cross-channel marketing is the ideal way to increase revenue and customer loyalty, especially when marketers apply the Pareto principle. Cross-channel marketing is more challenging than multi-channel marketing. Instead of focusing on disseminating a message via multiple channels, cross-channel marketing is customer focused. Companies must expend significant resources to capture adequate information about users and track their needs across all channels. Applying the Pareto principle cuts down the time needed to discover client needs while maximizing ROI.

The Pareto principle

Although originally not related to marketing, the Pareto principle stems from work by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto, who discovered 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by 20 percent of the population. Surveys he conducted confirmed other countries had a similar ratio. The economist even discovered 80 percent of his garden peas came from 20 percent of his pea pods.

Pareto did not actually come up with the principle, however. A business management consultant named Joseph M. Juran discovered 80 percent of quality control issues stemmed from the top 20 percent of problems. He named the principle after Pareto. Over time, people have expanded the principle to explain other business matters, such as:

  • 80 percent of complaints stem from 20 percent of customers
  • 80 percent of profits come from 20 percent of time spent
  • 80 percent of sales are by 20 percent of sales staff
  • 80 percent of sales are made from 20 percent of products

Perhaps the most relevant discovery for cross-channel marketing is knowing 20 percent of the customers are responsible for 80 percent of the profits. Knowing this, cross-channel marketers should focus their efforts on identifying and tracking those 20 percent.

The efficiency of the Pareto principle

Cross-channel marketing requires companies to track users across all channels, meaning each customer must have their own profile and sales staff must be able to match content to the customer. Taking the time to track all of a company’s customers is a waste of time and resources, according to the Pareto principle.

Only 20 percent of the customers possess exceptional brand loyalty. These one out of five customers are really the only people worth tracking because they produce most of the profits. Tracking the top 20 percent is a more realistic goal than tracking everyone as well. Once the top 20 percent is identified, sales staff can not only concentrate on marketing to them but they can also see who those people influence socially and push to expand their ideal customer base.

The Pareto principle and staffing

For the most effective cross-channel marketing, a company should identify their best salespeople and then expand. Cross-channel marketing relies on well-trained sales staff, especially in a call center. For example, a customer sees a product on TV or in a magazine he likes. He goes online to view the product on the company website, perhaps even scanning a QR code with his smartphone, before calling the company to ask questions. All of the data about what the customer wants is available. When he calls in, a salesperson has the chance to study the data and anticipate the customer’s needs, increasing the potential of a sale and the chance the customer will become part of the core 20 percent.

Companies can use sales figures to find the most effective employees, but they should also look for people who display leadership qualities, are self starters and who influence others. These people will attract more high-quality workers, ensuring the sales staff comprises only the best employees. The remaining 80 percent should be retrained, reassigned or possibly let go.

Companies can even use the Pareto principle when recruiting workers by looking for the natural leaders at other companies. Often times, recent college graduates who have not yet had the chance to prove themselves with sales numbers or a customer service history can become part of the top 20 percent. They are highly educated and motivated to prove themselves.

Bridging the gap between marketing within channels and creating integrated customers takes significant effort. Narrowing down the targeted group with the Pareto principle simply makes sense. After brainstorming the best ways to accomplish this goal, companies can even use the principle to narrow down ideas as the top 20 percent are most likely to result in 80 percent of the results.

Filed Under: Guest Bloggers, Strategy & Business, Success Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Conferences: Coming Together to Enhance Communication

07/26/2012 by

Social media is all about communication across a distance. This Internet-aided communication makes it easy for individuals to reach out, keep up on current events and acquire insight into the thoughts and ideas of others. While communication—thanks at least in part to social media—no longer requires coming together physically, many real-world conferences specifically pertaining to this topic are popping up around the country.

Such conferences—many of which are located in Chicago—allow social media users to come together face to face, perhaps enhancing the connections they’ve cultivated online and offering an opportunity for those who value social media to learn more about it and provide input on how it will continue to evolve into the future.

Face-to-Face Interaction

While some contend that the point of social media is to eliminate the need for face-to-face communication, others would argue that social media is in fact only another layer in the modern, multi-faceted system of interaction of which we are all a part. These advocates of communication across multiple channels would argue that connecting via social media alone isn’t sufficient to develop complex relationships and solve problems or reach a consensus for change. By coming together at physical locations, these lovers of—or capitalizers on—social media can add complexity to their interactions, enhance their understanding of the opportunities that social media affords and have a more lasting impact on the development of these channels.

What’s There to Learn

Using social media is generally intuitive, as designers of these online communication platforms aim to make it easy for users to teach themselves to use these tools. Knowing how to take advantages of all the opportunities that social media affords isn’t as simple, however. Through conferences like the Saint Xavier University Conference in Chicago, social media users can receive training in how to effectively utilize all the tools of social media as a communication and advertisement platform.

Such information could prove particularly useful to business leaders trying to use social media as a way to promote their products or services. Any time individuals of like interests converge in one place, the opportunity for networking also presents itself. At the SXU conference, as with other social media conferences, those with social media skills can network with those looking to use social media more effectively, exchanging ideas and potentially trading services.

Location, Location, Location

The Midwest provides an ideal location for conferences on social media; the centralized location makes it convenient for the maximum number of attendees. Unlike a conference on one of the coasts, which would be difficult for those from the opposite side of the country to attend, this Midwest locale isn’t as out-of-the-way for attendees.

As an additional bonus, Chicago offers much for visitors to see, ensuring that, even if the conference doesn’t meet their expectations, they aren’t sorely disappointed by their trip. From the Navy Pierto the Chicago Cultural center, there’s som

Social Media Conference at Harvard

ething to suit anyone’s fancy in this metropolis. With numerous well-appointed Chicago hotels, visitors will spend their time in the city in comfort and relaxation.

Since its eruption on the communication scene, social media has only continued to grow as a Web presence. Because of the pervasiveness of this communication medium, individuals in business—or just those with a refined desire to use and understand this sometimes-complex communication form—are remiss not to take advantage of the learning opportunities, including social media conferences, available to them.

 

Filed Under: Social Media, Strategy & Business Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Joining the Conversation: How To Make Your Small Business Internet Famous

07/19/2012 by

Social media provides small business owners with a novel and effective way to market their business directly to a customer or client base. The advent of the Internet and widespread social media has eliminated the obstacles that once stood between a brand and the consumer. Without a middleman, brands can directly interface with their consumers through all the usual social media haunts. Social media is important enough to the business cycle that marketing companies have cropped up to aid brands in their endeavors to capture the hearts and the minds of their consumers directly. You need to learn how to take advantage of social networking to get the word out about your small business, and to interact with customers for great virtual word of mouth recommendations. However, you also need to accomplish this without coming off as being pushy, sales orientated or a complete tool.

How to Play the Social Media Field

The first thing you’ll need to do is to get a feel for the specific social network you’re targeting. Each social media site has its own focus, flavor and specific features that you need to be aware of so you come off as savvy. Look at your competitors’ profiles on the same site to see how they approach things, and how their customers respond to them.

Keep things professional, but don’t be too uptight. Most social networks provide you with an informal and personal platform to connect with your target demographic. If you approach them with the personalities behind your small business, they’re going to be able to relate to you far more than a faceless big box company. Don’t be afraid to be real and honest with them throughout the conversations. Just always be aware that you do still represent your company. Always be aware of the impression that you’re putting out.

Provide incentives to get your customers to share your profile. Maybe you can run a contest or giveaway that depends on sharing a post or picture. You can also provide discount coupons or access to exclusive sales by favoriting or friending a social media profile.

Let them look behind the curtain. People are always curious as to how the product creation process is conducted, how ideas are generated and other information about things you might consider mundane since they’re part of your day-to-day business. Show your customers what’s going on behind the scenes and let them feel like they have a better understanding of exactly how your business works.

Go beyond your own profiles. Not everyone that’s talking about you is doing it on your social media profiles. If the network provides tools to find out where you are mentioned, use them to your advantage. Try and respond outside of your own profile in order to show your customers that you’re involved and care about the impression that your company makes. Even if you find bad experiences, do what you can to help the person out. You just might end up with a great deal of word of mouth recommendations or even viral traffic for your troubles.

Everyone is playing the social media game and you can’t expect to stand out right off the bat, especially if you’re getting started now (good luck!). As long as you are honest and professional with your presence, you can always cultivate your user base and build new fans out of skeptics. Don’t give up!

 

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How Non-profits & Charities Use Facebook

05/11/2012 by

Facebook offers a number of tools that allow non-profits and charities to use Facebook to share their organization and mission with the world.

Facebook Pages

In general Facebook Pages are a more formal way to share information about their organization with a larger public audience. More than 22,000 non-profits currently have a presence using Facebook Pages. For example, the Susan G Komen for the Cure Foundation uses their page as a more engaging mini-website within Facebook. They have over 500,000 fans sharing videos, providing feedback, taking polls, and donating to their cause through their page.

Causes

Causes is an application that enables users to organize themselves into communities of action that support specific issues, campaigns, or non-profit organizations. For example, just over a year ago, a Harvard medical student created the “Campaign for Cancer Prevention” cause, which has grown to more than 4.2 million members. In addition to raising $75,000 for a cancer study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the cause features an active discussion board where members share stories and resources.

Groups

Groups tend to best serve communities of individuals wishing to engage around a particular issue and organize themselves around actions or discussions. They can be user-generated or set up by an organization. For example, “Un Millon de Voces Contra Las Farc” (1 million voices against Farc) was organized by a user seeking to drive awareness for the Colombian government to take action against the FARC.

Social networks are ubiquitous, inexpensive (when compared to other media), and available 24/7/365. This allows a non-profit to leverage every hour of the day to share content, build their community or fund raise. Finally, Facebook offers greater value to brands and consumers through tools like Facebook Credits Pages.

Bio: Virginia Cunningham is a freelance tech writer based in Los Angeles California. She currently blogs about biometrics, identity security and ID card technology AlphaCard

Filed Under: Contributors, Facebook, Featured, Guest Bloggers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Why I have no “Close Friends” on Facebook

02/29/2012 by

Facebook has added a lot of new features to their site over the past 6 months. One of these features is the ability to select “close friends“. This was supposed to be an improvement on the old style of lists FB use to offer. However, this feature became annoying before it became anything else.

The new listing feature s cumbersome at best. I find that where I once used lists, though I know I was one of the 5%’ers that did, I no longer do. Adding friends to lists is not as easy as it once was, unless it is a close friend. For them you just need to click the star on their profile and wahlah! You are done!

Sounds great doesn’t it. Well, it is not. After adding some people to my close friends list, I started noticing that my notifications were filled with their posts. In fact, it was so filled with their posts, I couldn’t find the links to comments people had made to my posts. I was actually losing my notifications to the post notifications of my friends.

I love my friends and I want to know what is going on with them, but isn’t that was the time line is for? Why do I need to get notifications every time they post. I can see where this is handy if you are keeping an eye on a profile. For instance if you are cyber stalking someone like your ex, or doing something more innocent like monitoring your kids online activity. Otherwise, it is annoying and cluttering up my Facebook experience.

There are ways you can turn these off, but that seemed like too much work. So I simply removed all my “close friends”. Now all the notifications I get are when someone has commented on a post or a picture of mine. I actually get to pay attention to the engagement happening on my profile!

So though I have many close friends in real life and on Facebook, I no longer have any official “close friends” on Facebook.

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Facebook Insights #FAIL

02/24/2012 by

Facebook Insights Dilbert Cartoon

If you are like me you tend to spend a fair amount of time delving through analytics. Ok, so I don’t actually expect you to share my love of analytics. But a good habit for Facebook page owners to get into is to look at their Insights. Facebook Insights is the reporting system for all you Facebook data. It tells you how many page views you had, who is clicking, liking, sharing. You can get age and gender demographics. How many times your story appeared in the newsfeed. How viral your content is. And a lot more. There is so much information in the downloaded excel spreadsheet that you go well into the double alphabet column. You can also view a synopsis of your Insights right on Facebook from you page. The link is on the left side menu, under your profile pic.

Normally insights is behind real time by 2 days. This is not a big deal. 2 days still gives you an accurate picture of what is happening with your page. However, for the past 2 weeks insights has pretty much been down. It has provided some spotty information, but for the most part it is not actually reporting anything useful. For a data geek like me, this has been enormously frustrating.

Thankfully, despite being quiet about it for the past few weeks, Facebook has finally admitted that they are aware of the problem and are considering it high priority.

Out of this frustrating debacle has launched a website that is hard not to love: whyisfacebookinsightsnotworking.com …and they give you an option to share how far behind in data reporting they are with your Twitter followers! I love it!

Now, usually when their is a big FAIL on Facebook it is because they are making some changes to the site. Of course, they don’t let anyone know of any potential changes so when they drop and then the site is working again, we all get to have an “A-Ha” moment.

There is a marketing conference at the end of the month, so maybe they will be announcing some big new changes coming to the site.

Filed Under: Facebook, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Memorializing Someone on Facebook

02/06/2012 by

Many of us have lost someone close to us. This can be a devastating event. In the age of digital technology we can often be painfully reminded of the person on a regular basis. So what do you do if someone close to you has passed away but you keep seeing them on Facebook?

For a while if someone died the only thing Facebook would do was delete their account. That sounds ok until you go to the persons wall and you see all your interactions, and their posts, and you are hit with that sadness of missing them and not wanting to “delete” them. For this reason, Facebook now offers a memorializing option. This means you can save their wall but have the account set up as no longer being an active account.

What does this mean?

  • You will not be reminded of their birthday
  • If they had events planned, you will not be reminded of those
  • They will not be suggested to people as friend
  • They will not appear in ads saying “so and so liked this page”

You will be able to go to their profile and see their wall, and even post on it. But you will not get the “living” reminders of them on Facebook.

If you are interested in memorializing someone go to the Facebook Help Center. From here you will be able to request that their timeline be memorialized.  You can still have the account deleted if that is what you prefer, but this is a nice option.

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , ,

New Facebook Timeline Profile

12/16/2011 by

Facebook Timeline Profile
The Facebook timeline profile is coming out! The new profile is being released right now and will be available for all profiles within the next few weeks.

I have had the new profile since it was released to developers in September. At first I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. But since using it, I have come to really like the new design. It is much more graphically oriented and fells more comprehensive, like it is giving you a more robust snapshot of the person.

The new profile is simply beautiful. It is a chronicling of your life, even before your started on Facebook. The timeline features photos and life events starting at birth. You can add information, photos, videos and posts into any time period. Have a prom photo from 20 years ago, add it in to the year 1976.

The beautiful layout, featuring photos and comments from your friends, has a deep emotional resonance. You are able to go throw the years and see your pictures. The things your friends wrote on your wall. The posts you shared and were shared with you. You not only get a glimpse of your history on Facebook, but a glimpse of your life history. It is like watching an old home movie on an old reel-to-reel.

Reminiscing has always been a social activity. Facebook has found a way to harness that.

Read more about the new Facebook Timeline. To get yours you just have to wait. When it is available to you there will be a notice at the top of your old profile.

Filed Under: Facebook, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,
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