Benefits of the Top 4 Social Media Networks

May
2013
21

posted by Whitney Tyson | on Content Marketing, Facebook, Linkedin, Marketing and Communication, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized, YouTube | No comments

Social Media

With limited resources, many small and mid-sized companies are asking themselves, “What should be the number one social media outlet to pursue?

 

 

Unfortunately, there is no easy way of answering this because each social site is so unique.  They each provide their own benefits, and each business would be able to use and benefit from each of them in different ways.  Here is a breakdown of how you can use each channel.

YouTube:

This requires low management maintenance.  Whenever you create a video, you should upload it and share it with your audience in different ways.  You can embed it into your website, email marketing blasts, share it on Twitter/Facebook, embed it into your LinkedIn profile and have QR Codes direct to them.  If you enjoy being creative with your marketing efforts and you tend to be more of a visual person, preferring to give a face to a name and show your audience how your business can help them, YouTube should definitely be a utilized channel.

Twitter:

Twitter requires the most management, but also has the most benefits.  First of all, its outreach and engagement opportunities are very extensive.  There are many tools out there that can help you search for leads and existing contacts.  You can also initiate relationships by following people, and if they know you or have heard of your business, they usually follow you back.  You can also embed your Twitter feed with your personal and company LinkedIn Status updates.  Some tools even let you update your Facebook through Twitter.  By syncing up social networks with each other, it can cover a lot more ground with just one post.  Another benefit with Twitter is its hashtag feature.  The best examples of hashtag usage would be during events.  If you go to an event, attendees and vendors are able to include the hashtag (such as #BestEvent) within their tweets, which will make their posts show up in the #BestEvent Twitter feed.  This is a great way of finding people at the show, engaging with them, and simply sharing your experience of the show with others.  The only cons of Twitter would be that there are a lot of tweets out there, so you must be consistent with your posts in order to position yourself as a thought leader who provides information but who also engages with their audience as well.

LinkedIn:

This network requires low management and has a more professional setting compared to others.  Everyone should belong to this network because LinkedIn members appear within or close to the top five Google searches when their name is searched for.  This helps encourage connections and relationships and it makes it easy for inquires and prospects to find you.  Personal profiles also give you the capability of sharing your website, social networks, more of your work portfolio and many other types of information.  If people want to learn more about you professionally, LinkedIn gives them the chance to do so, and then gives them the option to connect with you.

While you are on LinkedIn, if your work email has its own domain, build a company page.  This gives the opportunity for all of your coworkers/employees to be under one network.  LinkedIn Company Pages also give you the opportunity to promote products, services, connect prospects with sales reps and more!  You can also keep it updated by posting regular Company Page Statuses.  I would recommend sticking with 4-6 company status updates each week, and try to focus on company news/industry news that your target audience would be interested in.

Facebook:

This would require a medium level of management.  My recommended amount of posts for this site would be once a day, possibly a little more if there is an event happening that you are participating in.  Sharing industry-related information in different mediums, such as photos, YouTube videos, blog posts or articles, is a great way to engage with your Facebook audience.  Your audience in this channel usually consists of existing customers who like and trust your company, and prospects who are interested in your specials, features or knowledge.  Facebook fans usually join your page in order to stay in the loop with what is new.  Posting pictures and YouTube videos of what is happening around the office is also great content.  This social network is meant to focus on humanizing your business.  So if you have an existing dedicated fan base who is online and wants to stay in the loop, Facebook may be your top priority.

At the end of the day…

Every business has its own unique audience.  Think about where your audience is and how they enjoy learning about the type of products you have to offer. Once you discover these key components, determining which social media networks are the right ones for your business will become more apparent.  No matter which one you choose though, each network is great for enhancing your brand’s search optimization. The more you update them, the higher they will rise in search results, plus, the bigger your networks are, the more potential you have of sending leads and inquiries to your website.

Key Resource for You:

Don’t wait, get started on social media marketing today! If you’re in need of help, let’s talk about how Social Media Consulting or a Social Media Marketing Plan could help you and your business. Click here to learn more!

Success through Onsite-Offsite Blogging

May
2013
17

posted by guestcontributor | on Uncategorized | No comments

Business bloggers are always wondering …
  • Am I accomplishing anything?
  • How can I do better, really better?
For super successful blogging, try an onsite-offsite strategy. It’s pretty simple, actually:
  • Onsite, supplement your own blogging with high-authority, relevant guest authors
  • Offsite, get your articles published on high-authority, relevant blogs
Simple as it is, few companies implement this strategy. The three enormous benefits of onsite-offsite blogging:
  • Vast improvement in SEO. When your articles are published on high authority, relevant blogs, you should be able to include a link back to your website. These backlinks are strong ranking factors for Google and other search engines.
  • Greater reach to your target online audience. Your articles on other blogs will be seen and shared by new readers. Guest authors writing on your blog will bring their readers along for the ride. More exposure leads to more leads and referrals.
  • Get a competitive edge. Because most companies blog listlessly, you can create space between yourself and the competition in terms of both SEO and brand awareness.
5 Tips for Attracting Great Guest Bloggers
  1. Maintain high content standards on your blog at all times
  2. Keep your blog’s content focused on your niche
  3. Publish inquiry forms and editorial guidelines to make it easy for potential guest authors to come on board (examples below)
  4. Connect with potential authors on social media, and invite them to write for you after you’ve established a relationship
  5. Ask your guest bloggers for referrals of other guest bloggers – bloggers are a generous lot and may surprise you by how eager they are to help
5 Tips for Getting Published on Great Blogs
  1. When you pitch an article idea to a blogger, be brief, businesslike, establish your credibility and make sure your proposal fits his/her blog
  2. After you pitch, follow up an a few days if you haven’t gotten a response
  3. Connect with relevant bloggers on social media to establish or cultivate a relationship before you pitch them
  4. Be flexible – if a blogger doesn’t think your article idea is the right fit, propose something else and/or ask for their ideas
  5. Write with passion – make sure your articles are consistently informative, valuable and engaging

One of my blogs, B2B Insights, has a couple of simple features designed to attract guest writers. The contact form provides the information I’m looking for from anyone pitching me on a topic:

Then, once a pitch has been approved, I have an editorial guidelines page to help guest bloggers understand how to write and submit posts.

Your guest bloggers will need to understand:
  • Word count minimums and maximums, if any
  • What type of style is out of bounds, if any
  • How they should handle images used in their post
  • How they should handle links in their post
  • Your policies on intellectual property
  • Any other considerations that are important to you
Over to You

Have you tried an onsite-offsite blogging strategy? How is it working? Do you have any suggestions for bloggers just starting to use this approach? Sound off in the comments.

Looking for some help interacting with your audience online? Click to learn 10 ways!

About the author:

Brad Shorr is Director of B2B Marketing for Straight North, a Chicago area Internet marketing agency.  His articles on content marketing, social media and strategy have appeared on scores of industry-leading blogs, including Smashing Magazine, Six Revisions and Carol Roth.

12 Ways to Incorporate Social Media into Events

May
2013
15

posted by John Foley, Jr. | on Business, Events, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Marketing and Communication, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube | No comments

CUPMAC 2012 Attendees with John Foley, Jr.'s Book

If you are attending or exhibiting at an upcoming event, be sure to prepare an online marketing strategy and plan for it.  Whether it is a trade show or conference, events are a great opportunity to build brand awareness and promote your company online.   There are many online channels you can use for event promotion, but we would advise you to begin with social media.  Social media is a key resource for promotion and engagement, and by executing the following steps, you will set your business up for marketing success.

Let’s first take a look at the promotional aspect…

Before the Event:

Create and/or engage in a hashtag. Create buzz by giving the event a special online presence with this way of categorizing tweets.

Does the event have its own social media presence? If so, make your presence known there as well. Post on the Facebook event page, tweet using the event’s account and set up a hashtag.

Make your schedule of events social-friendly. Allow users to “check-in” to venues. Make sure all blog posts related to the event can be easily shared on social networks and via e-mail. The schedule should either be on a dedicated mobile page or on a page that was designed in responsive.

Spread the word elsewhere online. Make sure your colleagues and peers blog about the event and be sure to have an email campaign focused on it, or maybe even a webinar. Press releases are great too.

Keep it conversational. Be sure to ask open-ended questions regarding the event that generate a response. Use social media as an opportunity to gauge interest in the event, take surveys regarding what should be featured, and use it as a forum to field questions. This also gives a chance for companies to retweet users’ responses in order to build a “word-of-mouth” hype.

Keep a countdown running. Don’t overwhelm your followers with information and messages only about the event, but be sure to have it mentioned and remind the users of it daily.

When the big day comes:

Take pictures of everything. Just when you think you’ve taken too many photos- take some more! People want to feel like they’re at the event, almost to the point where they feel like they didn’t miss out at all just by following you on social networks. Document everything as it will provide great blog content for your official site later on. Ask attendees to do the same and post on Twitter using the hashtag.

Take videos of all possible content. If anything, it’s great for your brand’s YouTube channel, but can also liven up a post-event blog entry. Also helps you sell future events.

Make your location known. If you’re attending a large scale event, make sure your followers know exactly where to find you. Tweet what room you’re in, what booth you’re at, and always use the hashtags so people know what you’re referring to. Even landmarks are helpful!

If people aren’t seeing you, MAKE them notice you. Engage with others at the event via social media so they feel compelled to come and find you.  Search the event’s hashtag and interact with those participating so you already have some background with people when you meet in person.

Did you just meet someone you want to remember? Make them remember you. Engaging with and commenting to people via social media is the new “collecting of business cards”. No need to try to remember who you hit it off with at the conference, as long as you stay engaged with them through social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn.

Tell everybody what happened. Write detailed and lively summary blogs for your company, and leave no detail out.

Once it’s all said and done, your company will have not only been an active participant on the conference room floor, but online as well. Promoting events via social media benefits you, your company, and the event.  There’s no better way to consistently engage and converse with others while spreading your brand’s name across multiple channels.

Be sure to incorporate as many of these steps as you can at your next event.  If you need a plan, or even people to help you, contact us for help. Good luck and enjoy!

Do Promotional Products Still Work?

May
2013
08

posted by guestcontributor | on Marketing and Communication, Social Media | 2 comments

SWAG

SWAG.  An acronym that means “Stuff We All Get.”  But do people want SWAG? Do they really want all the stuff they get?

While most people enjoy a bargain, and maybe some freebies on occasion, it’s debatable if customers want…well, to be honest, merely gimmicks and junk that will just add clutter to their homes or end up in the trash can.

SWAG – Yes or No?

The savvy small business owner needs to truly weigh the pros and cons of promotional products, and determine if they add or detract from the value of the business.

Promotional products that actually add value to a customer’s life in some way would likely be far more effective than annoying gimmicks customers ignore and cheap stuff they end up throwing out.

Best Ideas for Promotional Products

The challenge is to find those promotional products that really work, and the methods to use that will best present them.

Practical promotional products, or genuinely unique or intriguing ones, are generally much better received than poorly made products or mere gimmicks. The main idea of promotional products is to include at least the business name and contact info on them, as a way to increase brand awareness.

Ideas for promotional products that would truly be useful for customers, depending on the nature of the business and its target market, might include any of the following:

  • Calendars in various sizes, from wall and desk calendars, to pocket planners.
  • Fridge magnets with calendars or clips to hold notes.
  • Notepads, notebooks, and binders.
  • Pens and pencils.
  • Safe, non-toxic toys for babies, children, or pets.
  • Samples of household products or beauty products.
  • Keychains or items that fit on keychains, such as cylindrical safety whistles or cylinders that hold emergency cash.
  • Customized products representative of the town or state in which the business resides, such as notepads with imprinted images of lighthouses or lobsters for Maine businesses; or calendars with imprinted images of race cars and a NASCAR schedule for businesses located in or near Daytona Beach, Florida.

Social Media for Promotions

Small business owners should not ignore the popularity and effectiveness of social media for “promoting the promotions” for the business.

For instance, just a few satisfied customers who announce their opinions of a business and its products or services, with decent numbers of followers on Twitter or lots of friends on Facebook, can often unleash a flood of potential new customers.

Of course, the opposite is likewise true—dissatisfied customers will take to social media and blast businesses they’re not happy with, and that can lead to bad publicity and the need to improve reviews if the business is going to recover and flourish.

Strategically using Facebook business pages, connecting with customers on Twitter, networking on LinkedIn, and sharing images of products on Pinterest are merely a few of the ideas of how to make social media work for promotions.

Need more ideas? A Strategic Online Marketing Plan will help. Click to learn more…and don’t worry, you won’t lose your place here.

To Gimmick or Not to Gimmick

The goal of small business owners should be to attract and appeal to customers—NOT annoy them! While most people appreciate a good deal, they typically do NOT appreciate gimmicks.  The word itself conjures up the idea of being tricked or “bamboozled” and that’s not a good feeling to stir up in any customer.

While promotional products themselves, at least those that really have value and offer a genuine deal to customers, are often received well, wise business owners should steer clear of gimmicks and cheap “stuff” now so they don’t have to work to improve reviews for the business later.

About the Author: K’Lee Banks enjoys writing about small businesses, entrepreneurship, and using social media to market and to improve reviews of small businesses.

7 Tips You Need To Hear About Automated Marketing

May
2013
01

posted by Donna Vieira | on Marketing and Communication | No comments

Marketing Automation

You likely have many of your marketing processes automated in an effort to connect with your prospects and move them through that sales funnel to the desired close. Ideally, your audience will see your messages via social networks, direct mail, internet ads and other forms of advertising. But showing interest is far from the start of your sales relationship. There’s still work to be done. People don’t want the hard close. They don’t want to be pushed. They want to be persuaded and courted.

Here are 7 tips for automated marketing:

  1. Don’t rely on the software to create your content – you want to keep it focused, driven by your company brand/personality and have that personal touch. There is great software out there to help you in all aspects of your marketing needs. And you may even get some great ideas for content from it. But don’t ever use cookie cutter content. It will totally miss the mark and you will definitely lose the interest of your prospects.

    2.  

  2. You need a reason to contact your leads. In days past, too many marketers assumed that the more contact with their leads, the better. But too much useless contact and not enough relevancy can make your messages fall flat. Email messages will go unread. Other messages will be glossed over by your prospect. Your touches with the prospect need to be relevant and timely.

    3.  

  3. Today’s automated marketing means so much more than email. It means customer relationship management, social marketing and optimizing for mobile devices. The right program can integrate these things to make it easy to manage your automated marketing functions. The better organized you are on the back-end, the better chance your marketing has to make the impact you desire.

    4.  

  4. Don’t approach automated marketing with a shotgun approach. One centralized system to handle data, track and measure results will help safeguard against this problem. If you have different working parts, then it’s easy for data to be misleading or results to be skewed. You want it all being tracked and measured by a single system to help guide you in your decisions.

    5.  

  5. Look for intuitive systems that take out the guesswork and base decisions on actual numbers. Imagine automatic campaign selection to increase conversions, better qualified leads with identification and correlation to anonymous high-level prospects.

    6.  

  6. Monitor behavior-driven communications, as this will help you narrow your target for your audience.

    7.  

  7. Think micro – highly individualized, highly targeted marketing. The challenge is that micromarketing requires some serious  background information. You need to know your target’s likes, dislikes, needs and wants. But the more targeted the communications, the better you will nurture that lead to the final close.

Customers are looking for information. You have that information. But you need to provide it in a way that they can find it. And then connect and build a relationship from there. Don’t ever forget that automated marketing will never fully replace (nor should it) human interaction. Use automation to your advantage, but don’t let it take away the human touch.

The 7 Minute Guide To Content Marketing Success

Apr
2013
29

posted by Lou Cimaglia | on Content Marketing | No comments

We all want to be experts in the latest and greatest trends and philosophies in the marketing world. Time is, however, not on our sides to achieve this dream.

Certainly, there is no substitute for hard work and practical application, but we all need a little push. This guide – a quick, seven-minute read – is designed to provide you with all of the building blocks you need to begin your trek towards content marketing success.

1. Understand The Definition, Benefits

As with anything in business, taking on a new endeavor requires an investment of resources. One will give up on content marketing if the goal is not clearly illustrated.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing, “is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Four Stats To Motivate You

  • 90% of consumers find custom content useful
  • 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement
  • 70% say content marketing creates a more personal attachment to the sponsoring company
  • 60% say custom content creates a positive perception
  • Source

In short, content marketing is a value to your audience, and fosters positive and personal connections to your brand which, in turn, can lead to increased sales and brand loyalty.

 

Click on the compass to download our Content Marketing White Paper - the 10 guiding principles you need to navigate content marketing.

2. Define Your Goals, Capabilities

Creating custom content, as you will discover, is time-consuming and challenging. And this is coming from someone who is paid to sit down and create content. If you run a bakery, automotive shop, non-profit or some other enterprise, creating content is not in your job description.

Assign benchmarks for yourself to hit. And create these benchmarks within the framework of a content calendar. If you do not allot yourself time and due dates for content, you will neglect, and eventually, abandon it.

A calendar should take into consideration your capabilities and aspirations. It should contain:

  • What days of the week or month you plan on posting
  • What type of content you plan on creating
  • How you plan on distributing this content

For a small shop, start small. Plan on posting twice a month. Nothing overwhelming, simply a starting point. Master the fundamentals before worrying about search engine optimization, mobile rendering, or anything like that.

Content is king, address that first.

3. Familiarize Yourself With Different Styles Of Content

The next Great American Novel is not your end goal.

Do not be handcuffed by the notion of text as the only form of content. Some industries in particular, such as dining or travel, are best suited to keep text to a minimum.

Writing is a difficult and increasingly rare skill to find. Your staff may not possess someone well-versed in crafting text and editing copy. And that is okay.

There are a slew of methods that companies large and small use to perform content marketing. Here are three resources for you to check out.

Take pictures. Shoot video. Interview your customers. Whatever you do, make sure it is being consumed and enjoyed by your audience.

4. Forming Habits

For all the research and prep work you do, it is all rendered moot if you do not sit down and do it. Whatever inspires you to create – tap into it and use it to your advantage. Pick a date and make that the day you post. Consistency is key.

Here are three posts that will help you build your content marketing strategy:

Recall that content marketing is meant to drive customer behavior. Having a consistently updated site is essential for this to occur. Your brand should be a promise that is constantly delivered. Be reliable.

5. Leads And Measurement

Like all marketing, you must be cognizant of measurements and metrics that your efforts produce.

Your website should have capabilities to capture interested readers and allow them a venue to share their contact information for you to follow up with. This brings the conversation full circle. They consume the content that you work so hard to create, and in turn, they will be more interested in doing business with you.

The more successful a particular piece of content is, the more leads you will garner. Use measurement tools to see which content is most preferred by your audience. Always be honing in on what works and what doesn’t. As you continue to boil down your processes, don’t be afraid to replicate what works.

As you master the fundamentals of content marketing, you can then dive into sharing this content on social media, optimizing your SEO strategy, creating mobile content, and more advanced marketing techniques.

Start slow, aim high, and don’t stop.

 

Download our free Inbound Marketing White Paper to learn more about generating and capturing qualified leads.

 

3 Things Brands Can Learn From Kmart

Apr
2013
26

posted by Kelly O'Halloran | on Marketing and Communication | 1 comment

Kelly

Kmart’s new ad might just make you want to ship your pants laughing.

If you haven’t watched it yet, you should. The video centers around the phrase “ship my pants.” When spoken out loud, “ship my pants” sounds a whole lot like something else—go ahead, say it!—and the repetition of the line throughout the video is unexpectedly hilarious.

The video, posted online on April 10th, already has garnered over 15 million views, 20,000 shares on Facebook, and nearly 40,000 comments.

The ad promotes Kmart’s Shop Your Way program, which allows customers to ship items they can’t find in store to their homes for free. The commercial starts off with a man being told about this new service, and his stunned reaction: “Ship my pants? Right here?”

An elderly shopper chimes in, “I just shipped my pants, and it’s very convenient.” Other customers mention that they have shipped their drawers, a nightgown, and even a bed.

It may be juvenile but, for me, the “potty-mouth” punch line just doesn’t get old. I literally have watched the 30 second video 5 times today.

But what can this video teach brands about marketing?

Sure, I love the ad because it makes me laugh like I’m 5-years-old again, but I also think it’s great from a marketing perspective. Let me break down a few of my takeaways:

Lesson 1: Give Them Something To Talk About

I’m going to throw it out there: Kmart is not cool.

I haven’t stepped foot in one in over a decade, so I don’t actually know anything about Kmart; I just assume it’s on the outs because I never hear people talk about it. This has been bad news for Kmart.

After watching this video though, I’m starting to wonder: What is Kmart like? I kind of want to go check it out this weekend and find out…

With retail giants like Walmart and Target taking over, Kmart seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. But I truly believe this ad could help put Kmart back on the map, because I know I’m not the only one loving it. So far this week, four of my friends have posted it on Facebook.

Sure, it was a risk on Kmart’s part—humor is difficult to achieve in advertising—but millions of people are laughing and sharing the video. And, more importantly, people are talking about Kmart again.

Lesson learned: Even the most irrelevant of brands can put themselves back on the radar with a hip campaign that gets people talking. Chances are a significant portion of these people will convert to customers.

Lesson 2: Haters Gonna Hate

Like I mentioned above, this ad was a risk for Kmart. Not just because humor isn’t easy in advertising, but also because…not everyone loves bathroom humor. In fact, One Millions Moms hates it.

Luckily for Kmart, One Million Moms is the name of the organization and not the actual number of moms in it. The group (which actually is only made up of a few thousand) wrote on their website last week that the ad is “disgusting” and “ridiculous” and “should be pulled off the air immediately.”

Can’t please everyone, right?

If you create a commercial with a risqué joke, some people will love it, some will be neutral, and others—like One Millions Moms—might be upset over it. But when you’re an increasingly unpopular brand, you’ve got to take a risk and do something different to get noticed.

Lesson learned: In the end, haters are going to hate. I think it’s better for Kmart to attract the attention of millions even if they have to risk that they may anger a few thousand.  As they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity…

(Side note: In some cases, I think some publicity really is bad publicity. Like this example. Or this.)

Lesson 3: Social Goes A Long Way

Not only did Kmart create the “Ship My Pants” video, but they also began Tweeting #ShipMyPants and the hashtag flew around Twitter. Conversations ensued:

I love that Kmart created a hashtag campaign around this too. Again, it’s getting people talking about their store…and it’s funny!

Kmart also impressed me with their social media etiquette. Upon seeing this video, I tweeted at Kmart this morning:

Almost immediately they replied:

You’d be surprised by how many brands are on Twitter and don’t reply when people mention them. Kmart did, and Kmart did it quickly. I know I’m probably biased because I work with social media, but I really do look at Kmart in a whole new way now because of this.

Lesson learned: Use Kmart as an example of social media marketing done right. Creating a clever hashtag around a marketing campaign can lead to positive conversations about your brand—and engaging with and thanking people online can boost your brand’s image.

What do you think? Do you think this campaign goes over the line? Or do you find the commercial just as funny as I do?

What I Learned From The Duck Song

Apr
2013
24

posted by Sam Lake | on Business | No comments

Duck Song

While my family was visiting a few weeks ago, my four year old niece and I were surfing YouTube trying to find some videos to watch. During her fast and furious link clicking she stumbled upon “The Duck Song” (watch it below before reading any further).

You might be wondering why I had you watch that silly little video about a duck asking for grapes. Watch it again, this time pretend the lemonade stand owner is a printer and the duck is a customer. The duck is asking for something very specific that the man doesn’t have. Instead of asking questions to find out why the duck wants grapes the man tries to get the duck to buy lemonade. His approach fails each time and the duck walks away.

How many times have you said to a customer, “no, but…”. If you have ever said this you are the lemonade stand owner. This should never be your first response when a customer is asking for something you don’t have. Always ask questions to learn more about the problem, and then decide if your services can provide them a solution.

Back to the video. Towards the end the man comes up with the perfect solution – he will go buy the duck some grapes. So they walk to the store and he buys the duck some grapes, to which the duck replies, “no thanks,” and then asks for some lemonade. At first it might just seem like this duck is being a jokester, but I will argue that the problem was the man running the stand. He never asked any questions to find out why the duck said he wanted grapes, instead he wasted his time trying to sell him lemonade and then wasted money on purchasing something that didn’t make his customer happy.

Often times customers think they know what they want, but it is up to the experts to ask questions to ensure what they are asking for and what they want are the same thing.

Don’t be the lemonade stand owner and purchase equipment or software because you think that is what the customer wants. Talk to your customers and find out what their problems are and then offer services that will provide them with solutions.

Because unlike this duck your customers aren’t likely to ask you for a service more than once.

Questions You Should Be Asking Your Customers -

  • How often do you…
  • What kind of …
  • Does your current …
  • What’s the most important thing to you about…
  • What are your strategies (or plans) right now?
  • What is one of the top three priorities you have right now in your company?
  • Can you tell me more about this situation?
  • How’s your business doing?
  • What, specifically, do you want to accomplish?
  • What are the top issues facing your business?
  • What is your biggest concern?
  • What are your key business initiatives?
  • What are your long short and long term goals?

Interested in transforming your business? John Foley, Jr. has written an entire book about it. Click here to get your copy. > >

Reaching Your Customers With QR Codes

Apr
2013
22

posted by Donna Vieira | on Mobile | No comments

grow socially, donna vieira, mobile marketing, qr code generator, qreate and track, qr code

What is a QR Code? Good question.

Quick Response Codes (aka QR Codes) allow you to send the viewer directly to a targeted site to learn more about you, receive an offer, view a video or download your contact information.  QR codes have been very popular in Japan for years, but recently they have begun gaining in popularity in the US.

Let’s back up for a second and talk a bit about barcode’s in general. In theory, all barcodes are quick response. The traditional 39 barcodes are on just about every package in the country.  When scanned, they elicit a response – typically the cost of the product into the POS (point of sale) system.

Click Here To Download Our Free White Paper To Increase The Impact of your printed material and increase leads and qualified responses. > >

The technology has been around for a long time and while simple, its purpose has always worked well as POS systems have evolved. All it takes is an inexpensive scanner and software to read the information and the design is universal. So what is the difference between a 39 barcode and a QR code? Well, just about everything.

QR codes are built to be scanned by mobile devices, so their content is exclusively for mobile devices. The benefit of this is that you are literally putting your words or experience into their hands via their smart phone.

If your website is mobile compatible  (either via an http://m.site or a mobile compatible site without Java, etc), then you can have your QR code link directly to it via a tracking link or a landing page so you know where the traffic is coming from. You can also build sites that are specifically designed for mobile.

But, that is just the tip of the iceberg; QR codes on business cards are now becoming increasingly popular and there are a few things that these can link to.  The simplest of them are either a specific landing page on your website or your contact information which would prefill into their address book. But what about a video?

With digital printing technologies, you can print small quantities for specific events and tailor the QR code to that event.

For example, why not record a video telling them how nice it was to meet them at the Acme Expo and a little about yourself? This provides them with an experience that leaves a memorable impression (and reminds them why they liked you so much in the first place!)  Additionally, QR codes can be used on direct mail pieces and advertisements to provide the recipient with promotions that can only be redeemed by showing their mobile phone at your business.

Now of course, there is a downside to QR codes as well but it’s not a big one. In order to read a QR code, you must have a smart phone with a camera and either download an application to your phone (we recommend Laser Beam LTE). Due to the fact that QR codes have not t been widely adopted in the US as of yet, many people opt to put a small graphic explaining what to do with the code.

Because QR codes are not packaging barcodes like 39 barcodes, there is no requirement for people to do something with them – they are simply value-adds.  They are being used in some warehouses for inventory purposes as they allow more information to be stored, but those companies already have scanners to read them.

At the end of the day, what’s important is to consider your core audience or target market to determine if QR codes can make a difference in your business. Most businesses can find a way to use them that will radically change their interaction with customers. In the midst of this economy, it is important to engage your customers and be interactive not reactive.

The uses for QR codes are practically endless; it’s just about your imagination.

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Your Guide to Marketing Gold

Apr
2013
17

posted by Whitney Tyson | on Email, Marketing and Communication, Social Media, Web Design | No comments

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