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Posts Tagged ‘QR codes’
On November 15, at 2:00 pm EST, I will be hosting a 30-minute webinar on iFlyMobi product demonstration.
This product demo webinar will be focused on educating our audience on best practices and ways to use iFlyMobi and QReate and Track to make the most of your mobile marketing experience.
We will cover everything from building mobile websites to selling them, as well as using QR codes to enrich your marketing efforts.
Click Here To Register
This will be the first installment of a monthly webinar series on interlinkONE and Grow Socially updates that can help grow your business.
The third Thursday of every month will feature a product demonstration on one of the interlinkONE and Grow Socially family’s many marketing tools.
The first Monday of every month will feature discussions on new marketing topics such as mobile, social media, QR codes, and much, much more.
Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to attend, for the first time, the Inbound Marketing Summit held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. I certainly took home a great deal – and not juts free T-Shirts. It was a fantastic event, from the variety of speakers to the exceptional networking that followed.
Now that I have had a chance to debrief from the day’s events, it is clear that five lessons rose above all others. Here are my five major takeaways from IMS 2012.
5. I Need to Blog More!
Immediately, I realized that I am not blogging nearly enough. I certainly wouldn’t pretend to be a captivating writer – Kathy Barry didn’t raise no liar.
But what I do know is that I have thoughts and ideas I should be put into writing. Content writing will help build my “personal brand,” a term that was used amply at yesterday’s Summit.
My Twitter handle, @tomrbarry, should be seen by as many eyes as I can possibly get it in front of. I gained roughly 25 new followers yesterday alone by Tweeting from the event. If I can start creating relevant content for these folks to see on my social profiles, I am engaging effectively.
A featured speaker yesterday, Dharmesh Shah, offered this thought: “Think of every question you get at a tradeshow or on a sales call, write them down and answer each one through blogs.”
As a sales person, that will be easy and valuable content for me to create.
4. Qualifying Sales Leads Is Hard Work
Having too many inbound leads is a problem every sales person would want to have. But, as you know, it doesn’t often work out that way.
Each lead needs to be carefully nurtured and contacted. Reaching out to someone three or four times might seem like plenty, right? Wrong.
According to Richard April, VP of Marketing, Paul Alves, CEO, and Craig Ferrara, Director of Client Operations for AG Salesworks, “the minimum amount of ‘touches’ you should anticipate for inbound leads before converting them to sales is eight times.”
To make sure you are maximizing time during the day, develop a regimented approach to qualifying these leads. Build a process.
The window to convert leads into sales is always opening and closing quickly. If you can dedicate the time – wisely – you will see results.
3. Think Mobile First
I probably heard the phrase, “mobile first,” over 100 times yesterday. And I couldn’t agree more with the idea.
Mobile is the next big thing when it comes to marketing. Bridging the gap between the physical world and the digital world is becoming so easy with the use of smartphones and other mobile technology. The fact that mobile is the fastest growing medium in the world is a startling indicator that it’s influence is only going to become more noticeable.
Having a strategy to utilize this technology is critical. When you start developing inbound, outbound and online strategies and campaigns, mobile should always be included.
If you are going to create content for your clients, understand that there is a good chance they are consuming it on a mobile device.
2. All Aboard The Google+ Train
Google makes sure that marketers and online officials are keeping the playing field even. Part of Google’s new algorithm stresses the importance of authors of posts and content – rather than pages. This means you need to start building the authority of your writers through Google.
A Google+ profile is one way to do this. A solid presence on Google+ will build credibility and recognition by the search engine. Include links to valuable content. A strong network on Google+ will, conceivably, build the influence and reach of your writers. A personal brand is becoming more important than keywords.
1. Invest Time In Social Conversations
Whether you are in sales, marketing, public relations or administration, taking the time to engage and connect with real people on social channels is very important. You must engage to communicate and have conversations – not constantly offering your sales pitch.
Monaco Lange said that we should, “stop selling products, start telling stories.” I need to incorporate real world problems and find solutions that will solve those problems. Create content that is valuable, sharable and likeable.
The stories I tell should demonstrate the benefits of the tools and services I sell. No one will engage with your content if it isn’t worth having a conversation about.
A Question For Readers
What channels do you use to engage and interact? Find me on Twitter @tomrbarry and let’s chat.
We are very excited to be heading to Graph Expo 2012 this weekend! If you are going to be attending the show (visit us at booth #1071 & 1072) or just want to know what we are up to, scan the QR Code below to get all the details!
We are getting closer to Graph Expo, and our attending team members are getting ready to head off to the big show! In the midst of preparing for the event, our Sales Operations Specialist, Katie Sadlier, was able to take some time to discuss what attendees can expect to learn at the Grow Socially and interlinkONE booths (#1071 & #1072!).
Take a look at what she had to say!
Whitney: This will be your first Graph Expo, what are you most looking forward to? What type of questions will attendees be able to ask you?
Katie: I am mostly looking forward to the people I will meet, both our customers as well as colleagues. We have national and international customers whom I have never spoken with in person. It will be great to meet these individuals as well as form relationships with and learn from others in the industry.
W: Our CMO, Jason Pinto, is speaking on “5 Ways to Generate More Leads from your Website” at Graph Expo. How can QR Codes and mobile websites generate leads, specifically with iFlyMobi and QReate and Track?
K: That is a great question! There are countless ways to use QR Codes creatively. Using applications, such as QReate & Track and iFlyMobi, to create QR Codes, is a great way to draw in leads before, during, and after a show. Prior to a show, you could send out an email blast or postcard containing a QR Code that points to information on events you will be hosting at the show, sessions you will be speaking at, where your booth will be located, etc. All of this information will help people to know of the various opportunities to connect with you and learn about your services and offerings.
During a show, you could have QR Codes posted on the collateral you are handing out, on your booth display, around the show’s facility, on your business cards, etc. These Codes could point to an iPad giveaway, a series of scavenger hunt clues, or something that points back to your booth. The intent of the QR Code should be to draw people to your booth and initiate conversation with you.
After a show, you could follow up with people you met by sending them an email blast, thank you card, quick note, or anything else that could contain a QR Code. This QR Code could point to a video where you say, “Thank you for stopping by our booth,” and explain the different ways they can stay in touch with you. Anyone who has attended a show, such as Graph Expo, will have met hundreds of people. What better way to make yourself stick out among those hundreds of faces, then to remind the person of whose face goes with your business card?
W: Those are some great ideas, and I’m sure the marketing opportunities will continue to grow and change as technology updates occur. Speaking of updates, we have seen many new features from iFlyMobi lately, could you tell us about them?
K: Absolutely! A lot of the enhancement ideas we receive for iFlyMobi and QReate & Track come directly from our customers and potential customers. We pride ourselves on always striving to improve our offerings and add more value for our customers. One of our most recent enhancements in QReate & Track includes a mapping of where all code scans occur geographically. This new feature adds value to the analytics we offer by providing our customers, and their customers, with a visual representation into the scope of their efforts. Another major feature released in iFlyMobi is our drag-and-drop functionality. This new feature gives our users more control and ease of use when creating content in iFlyMobi.
Here are some of our latest enhancements:
W: Thanks for sharing those updates! Our CEO, John Foley, is speaking on “Content Anywhere, Implementing a Cross Media Strategy” at Graph Expo. How can businesses integrate mobile channels in a cross media strategy?
K: There are many ways for businesses to incorporate mobile channels into their cross media strategies. The traditional cross media channels include things such as direct mail, email blasts, landing pages, and PURLs. Mobile channels could include things such as SMS, QR Codes, and NFC. With the ever growing mobile audience it is important to include mobile channels in your marketing mix. For example, you might combine a traditional media, such as a poster, with a mobile media, such as a QR Code.
The key to using mobile medias is to ensure that your audience has a streamlined way to respond to your call to action in the moment. In the example above, your poster might read “Scan this Code to receive a coupon!” When someone scans the QR Code, you would want the coupon to display properly on their mobile device. Using tools such as iFlyMobi, creating mobile content is very easy. As another example, let us say that instead of a coupon, your QR Code points to a landing page where someone can enter their email address to win a prize. Same rules apply! You want to ensure that the landing page is optimized for use on a mobile device, and like all marketing channels, you want to ensure that you are providing your audience with an incentive to respond to your call to action.
W: If Graph Expo attendees and vendors wanted to do a last-minute mobile marketing and sales campaign for the event, what could they do?
K: It is never too late to incorporate mobile channels into your marketing plan! Some ideas for doing so could include making QR Code buttons for your employees to wear. These buttons could point to each employees’ online business cards. A second idea could be to place an 8” x 11”sign (or larger), containing a friendly URL or QR Code, on the table at your booth. When someone scans the Code or visits the friendly URL, they would be brought to a mobile optimized landing page where they could enter to win a prize. A third idea could be to hand out fliers with a mobile contest on them. For example, the flier could list individuals from your company that they must find and take a picture with on their mobile device. They would then need to tweet the pictures to your company page, with the Graph Expo hashtag included, and the person with the most tweeted pictures would win a prize after the show.
If you have questions for Katie, give her a call at 978-694-9992 or send her a note!
List of Our 2012 Graph Expo Speaking Engagements
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Sometimes, a heartfelt social media story is in the last place you’d expect. We’ve covered online success stories from corporations large and small, non-profits, and some fun contests as well. But today we had the opportunity to talk to a one-man online success story: The WWE’s Zack Ryder.
The WWE is a household name brand with an established legacy and fan base. They’ve been a publicly traded company for over 12 years and produce multiple programs on a weekly basis that reach 145 countries in 30 languages, reaching over 600 million homes worldwide. Their website sees over 12.3 million hits each month and has over 10 million Facebook fans.
When Zack Ryder was signed by WWE in 2006, he thought he had finally made it. All his life, his dream was to become one of the top superstars in the company and make his mark in the industry. But as time went on, Ryder struggled to find his place in the WWE’s busy and ever-changing programming schedule. “I didn’t feel like a superstar, you know?”, Ryder says, “I didn’t have an action figure, I wasn’t on TV, I didn’t have a promotional [photo]. I was just sick of pitching ideas and nothing getting done. But I did realize I had to do something about it.”
How It Took Off
That’s when an “Oh Mom and Dad, you shouldn’t have!” moment turned his entire career around. ”For Christmas in 2010, my parents got me a Flip video camera. I really didn’t know what to do with it so it just kind of sat in my closet for a while.” Then Ryder decided to showcase his entertainment and humor on YouTube. “In February 2011, I started ‘Z! True Long Island Story’ which was just me talking and trying to be funny just by making fun of myself, getting my friends and family involved, whatever I could do.” The way Ryder speaks of it, you’d think it was just another YouTube viral-esque cluster of sketches of inside jokes but nothing is further from the truth. The show skyrocketed into popularity with fans of the WWE in a matter of weeks and has since gained in excess of 13 million views.
This is when Ryder really started to notice some things catching on. He used the YouTube series to show that he was just a big kid who grew up a fan “living the dream” and invited viewers to take a look at his entertaining, albeit rare, life off the road (WWE does 250+ shows annually). The amount of interaction and increased views made Zack aware that his popularity online had some serious potential. “That’s when I started going crazy on Twitter and Facebook. I was always on my phone, tweeting and trying to get the fans behind me because that was the only voice I had.” Ryder’s efforts quickly paid off with love from the crowd. Chants would break out for him in arenas across the country. “A lot of the time, I wasn’t even at the show. I wasn’t even in the building.” They’d bring signs saying things such as “We Want Ryder”.
Getting His Fans Involved
At this point, Ryder saw that he had a true connection with his fans and started to show appreciation back by including photos of all of the signs fans would bring into his YouTube show. He included an interactive portion of the show where fans would audition for a segment called “Broski of The Week”. ”It was just like this crazy snowball effect. Everything was happening so fast and the fans were such a huge part of it, so of course I had to include them in what I was doing.”
“I didn’t have a cool T-shirt of my own, they made like a generic $15 one of me just standing there.” But Ryder was determined. He tweeted and gave his fans incentive to get the shirt and if they tweeted a photo of themselves wearing it, Ryder personally sent each one an autograph.
After a few months, Ryder found himself with more spots on WWE shows across the country, using his Flipcam to record every entrance out to the ring and incorporating it into that week’s episode of “Z! True Long Island Story”. He fashioned an “Internet Championship” belt out of his little brother’s toy replica WWE belt at home and started showing it off on his show. After a while, Ryder sprang for the real thing. “I got it made, paid $1600 plus shipping and handling and got a real belt. It looks, weighs, and feels like a real title. I showed it to the WWE and they were like, ‘There’s no way you’re coming out with that on TV’.”
Photo Credit: http://ilnk.me/11f2b
Although the famed title never made an appearance on one of WWE’s many programs, Ryder’s YouTube show and social media efforts had resonated so strongly with their audience that WWE did end up making one of Ryder’s dreams come true: He got his own cool T-shirt. And what’s on it? The Statue of Liberty holding up the Internet Championship belt. In fact, Mattel just released a new Zack Ryder action figure that comes packaged with a mini Internet Title of its own. But what interested us the most about Ryder’s merchandise was his use of QR codes.
“They gave me a bunch of ideas for a new shirt and one of the ideas was just a QR code on the front. I said, “There’s no way we can do that.” So he designed his own merchandise that incorporated everything that got him to where he is today: Long Island, the Internet Championship, and a QR code so you can find Zack online. Now, the code is on everything Ryder related – from action figures to the trunks he wears to the ring.
Ryder’s Social Impact on the WWE
Since the social media “Ryder Revolution,” Zack has enjoyed his time in the spotlight and has been noted by many for bringing more social media strategies to the WWE’s attention. And they certainly listened. In the past year, they’ve partnered with social video site, Tout, produced their own mobile app, signed a streaming deal with Hulu, and saw a huge success thanks to the social media promotion of their flagship event, Wrestlemania.
Ryder attributes an enthusiastic audience to the huge success WWE has seen across all social media channels, especially Twitter. “You’re able to communicate with someone you regularly watch on TV, and it’s just this crazy environment that WWE has really been able to capitalize on.”
With no signs of stopping, it seems that the “Ryder Revolution” could just be getting started.
Be sure to watch Zack on the next WWE Pay-Per-View event on October 28.
Tomorrow, our CMO, Jason Pinto, will present “QR Codes—Helping You Get Out of the Woods!” at the Tennessee Recreation and Parks Association Annual Conference in Knoxville, TN. He will be joining Jim Caughorn, Jr., Vice President of Graphic Creations, Inc for this session.
The presentation will deliver useful information on how QR Codes work and how easy it is to incorporate it into tourism and marketing efforts. Pinto and Caughorn will also discuss the benefits that will come from integrating mobile marketing efforts into an overall strategy.
If you would like to learn more about what mobile marketing tools are available, visit iFlyMobi and QReate and Track. These tools offer mobile websites and tracked QR Codes.
For additional assistance and questions, contact sales representative, Tom Barry at TomB@growsocially, or give us a call at 1-800-948-0113 today!
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If you would like to learn how your company can capitalize on the tremendous growth that is happening in the world of mobile today, I’d like to extend a special invitation to you.
Please join us for a free webinar on July 12th at 2PM Eastern Time!
During the one-hour session, entitled “Become the Mobile Services Provider“, we will share strategies, tactics, technologies, and tools that can enable you to successfully offer mobile marketing solutions to your clients.
Don’t wait! Register today to reserve your spot >>
Are you looking to enhance your online presence and boost your marketing efforts? Visit Grow Socially at Labelexpo Americas in Booth 3802 from September 11-13 in Chicago to learn how your label printing company can succeed with social media and online marketing!
Grow Socially can redesign and rebuild your website to be up-to-date with all of the latest trends in internet marketing. Our website design services will improve your search engine optimization, incorporate a blog, integrate your social media accounts, and help you to generate more leads.
Our team can also offer social media management. This includes the creation, branding, executing and measuring of your social media accounts.
We are experts in all of the pertinent social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and more. We can create the strategies necessary for success and implement them to see the results your printing company deserves.
Grow Socially can also offer consulting services to your business. We can perform all of the tasks necessary to create a tailored, specialized strategic marketing plan that can help your business reach new heights.
We’ll be there every step of the way, from intensive planning, to crafting a plan with targeted objectives and tactics, to measuring every last message to ensure you are maximizing your efforts.
If you’d like to see how we can do all of that for your company, make sure to visit Booth Booth 3802 at Labelexpo Americas!
Can’t wait until then? Learn more about what we offer today >>
Presenting the latest installment of the Meet The Team series. Today, we’ll introduce you to Katie Sadlier, a sales operation specialist for interlinkONE and Grow Socially.
Many of us live in a gray, corporate landscape. Cubicle forests rise up through the neutral carpeting, the only excitement seemingly coming from the line at the coffee machine. Some offices look more like George Orwell’s “1984″ than a place of business.
Thankfully here at interlinkONE and Grow Socially, that scenario isn’t the case. And there are people directly responsible for that. Around the office, when we think of someone who brightens up the work day, Katie Sadlier is normally one of the first who comes to mind.
Katie is a self-described “free-spirit” with a penchant for good times, good music and good causes. Katie is always quick to greet visitors and coworkers alike with a smile and a friendly greeting.
As a Sales Operation Specialist, Katie is our in-house expert on both iFlyMobi and Qreate and Track. A QR code enthusiast, there isn’t much she can’t do with these two products. She’s quite happy to be working with mobile technology – it’s certainly one of the hottest items in marketing today, and as a result , she’s always busy. Katie helps companies build mobile websites for themselves and for their clients (under our White Label Program), and she also advises companies on effectively incorporating QR Codes into their printed materials.
Katie was born and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, where she still resides today. She is a 2007 graduate of Michigan State University, where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing.
During her time as a Spartan, Katie made herself very busy. She was the Director of Public Relations for Alpha Phi Omega and a member of the University Activities Board. She performed many community service hours over the course of her undergraduate career.
Katie at the 2011 Warrior Dash
Outside of the office, Katie is an avid runner. On Tuesday nights, she participates in the Good Times Running Series, based in Lowell. On Wednesday nights she plays volleyball at Nashoba Valley. And if that weren’t enough, she also volunteers at crew meets in Lowell, as she used to be a rower in high school.
Her tastes in music are just as diverse as her interests. She says No Doubt has been her favorite band, “forever,” but she is also a huge ZZ Top fan, as well as most other types of music. She’s even been spotted at a Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum concert by numerous Grow Socially employees.
Katie’s sense of humor and outgoing personality make her a highly valued member of the interlinkONE and Grow Socially family.
Katie’s Fast Facts
Favorite Movie: A League Of Their Own
Favorite TV Show: What Not To Wear
Favorite iPhone App: i-nigma
Favorite Food: Stir Fry
Favorite Vacation Spot: Anywhere Near The Beach
Connect with Katie on Twitter!
We are very excited to be heading to MFSA this weekend! If you are going to be attending the show or just want to know what we are up to, scan the QR Code below to get all the details!
Contact Us For An Audit
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