$99 Market Visibility
Is it possible to get anything substantial for $99 anymore? It sure is! Normally I don’t talk about services in my blog posts, but this was too good to pass up.
In the September 9 Weekly Marketing Nuggets, I talked about the importance of taking control of your profiles on sites like Google Places, Foursquare and Yelp!. For just $99 you don’t have to worry about learning how to do this yourself. Rather, we’ll go find where you’re currently listed, and if you’re not, we’ll get you listed on these three important sites.
But is this right for every business? Nope! And that’s why we don’t take orders online. Rather, fill out a quick form, and we’ll contact you to discuss whether or not this is the right opportunity for your business. If it’s not, nothing lost. If it is, you’ve just gotten a piece of gold for the relative value of a penny.
What do you get by marketing on these types of sites?
- Get current customers talking about your business
- Market specifically to people who are visiting your business or others around you.
- Promote specials and events specifically to those who want to know about them.
Write to entertain
One of the activities I love fulfilling for clients is ghost writing. On a monthly basis I write between 5-15+ newsletters and/or blog posts for clients. The reason I love this activity is not only because I am good at it (hence why I’m paid for it), but really because it gets a response.
One client wrote to me, “You make me look really good!” This was right after I wrote a newsletter for this client drawing correlations between the movie “Groundhog’s Day” and a job seeker. This particular newsletter solicited a great response, and one recipient forwarded it to most of their company.
So what’s the trick? True, I spent 3 years as an English major at the University of Michigan, so I have a natural tilt toward writing. However, anyone who wants to take a little time can do this same thing. Here’s my secret: entertain your audience.
When you write any social marketing piece (meaning it is not direct marketing, but through a social platform such as a newsletter, blog, Facebook, etc), if you entertain your audience, they’ll respond. However, a 300 word article that is just a stand-up script is worthless. Rather, combine a critical message in a way that is fun to read, yet drives home your point.
Here’s an example. Last week I wrote a newsletter article for a client where I looked at the number of movie remakes this year, and suggested job seekers (my client is a recruiter) do a “career remake”, and gave several steps on how to do it.
You don’t have to have to say a lot to have an impact. Rather, saying a little, on a regular basis, will keep your audience engaged, and coming back for more.
Energize your new campaign…without breaking the bank!
I am engaged in a marketing campaign for a client that has some serious viral potential. The two methods we’ve decided to tackle on the front end of this campaign are through Facebook and Twitter. Now I’ve read a lot of feedback that says you shouldn’t pay for marketing in social networking, but I have to disagree. Here’s why:
You don’t have to pay to have a Facebook account, and you don’t have to pay to 
add events, groups, fan pages and other such things. However, these are all great…if you can get people to see them. This is where Facebook PPC comes into play. Unlike Google and MSN, you can very specifically target your audience with Facebook. For instance, my current client wanted to target 40-60 year old adults in 45 of the 50 states in the US, who have a college degree and speak English. How can Facebook be that specific in its targeting effort? Because people give that information when setting up their profile (it’s not just so people know a little about you). (more…)
3 Tools to lower your 2010 marketing budget
As we approach the end of the year, one of the questions every marketing department will be tackling is how to lower their marketing budget and increase effectiveness. Below are 6 tools I would recommend for anyone leveraging Internet Marketing Strategies:
- Google Analytics – One of the better analytics programs on the market, and yes, it’s free. With this tool, you can automate reports, have them sent to your email on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. The downside to this tool is the lack of real-time analysis. Reporting can be delayed as much as several (6+) hours. If you need real-time tracking for your site, you’ll want to investigate some of the “for fee” analytics programs. (more…)
Social Networking…Optimized
I have focused a lot on leveraging Social Networking and Social Media for pushing your business forward. As I have, a lot of focus has been on the need for doing it, which is also getting a lot of attention. But what I’ve only seen recently is the need to do it well, and to optimize your interactions in Social Networking.
The first thing to keep in mind is that things posted to a social networking site is still being posted to a webpage. With that being said, it’s not the “build it and they will come” model. Unfortunately a lot of people approach it that way. Yes, you’ll get some people to come if you just build it. However, they aren’t necessarily the people you want to have. Rather, just like your website, you want to the right people to come to you. How do you make that happen? (more…)
Stop Interrupting Me!
One of the things that drives me crazy is when companies interrupt me to try to pitch their product. We’ve all experienced walking through the mall and one of the kiosk employees trying to get us to try their lotion, or their heating pads, or (one I actually like) their magic tricks. I try to avoid these at all costs…their technique is known as interruption marketing; they interrupt to get you to interact with them.
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Customer Service and Social Networking
I just saw a video posted on YouTube back at the beginning of July. I’m sure we’ve all thought about how we could get the attention of a company that really doesn’t “get it”. This is a video of one such band that actually decided to speak up.
What does this have to do with social networking? If companies think they can get away with treating customers/clients without regard to consequences, this video shows otherwise. Likewise, if you’re really going to make an impact for your company, you must engage social networking, it’s not just an option any longer.
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Revise your perspective!
As a business owner it can be very easy to get into the mindset that you just want to get people to do business with you. After all, if you don’t have any paying customers, your livelihood is on the line. However, in a worldwide society of in your face marketing, this seems to miss the point most of the time, especially if we’re new players on the block.
In service based industries, such as financial services, recruiting, business consulting and more, getting in people’s so-call face and demanding business is a big turn off. If your breath doesn’t do it, our attitude will. So how do we correct this? First, let’s take a TicTac and a nice deep breathe.
Social Media for the Executive
When I think of company visibility, I immediately think of executive visibility. It really doesn’t matter if a marketing intern has online visibility. Rather, it’s the high ranking executives that people care about. They want to know if the company can be trusted, and how better to gauge that than if you know the executives?
But there’s an interesting dilemma: executives just don’t have time. This is very true. Most executives don’t have hours a day to network, and they shouldn’t put that much time into it either.
Social Networking – Do it right!
The last few years there has been a lot of press surrounding the use of Social Networking tools for business (e.g., blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc). What drives me nuts about how so many people approach Social Networking is that they just unashamedly promote themselves, without giving anything in return.
For so many years we’ve been marketed to through radio, television, even our commute to work through billboards, and now online pop-up ads and spam. Companies will spend a ton of money trying to figure out where to advertise and how to “get into the consumer’s head.” If you’ve ever taken an intro marketing class, you know what I’m talking about. Well we’ve had enough, get out of my head! (more…)
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