Tactics

February 1, 2016February 1, 2016 ~ trishey0 ~ Leave a comment

Social Media

Social media allows your brand to take on a human form. People are intimate on social media – they sleep with their phones, take them on dates, take them shopping – in fact these days it would be unusual to see anyone without some sort of media device.

According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. This demonstrates a huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales, but a lack of understanding on how to achieve those results. Here’s a look at just some of the ways social media marketing can improve your business:

Run a Facebook competition – This will engage prospective customers and make them aware of your products or services.
Have Flash sales – 20% off days
For restaurant owners – Launch a new menu and ask for feedback – award a prize of a free meal.
Christmas, Halloween or St. Patrick’s Day – offer a prize to the person who uploads the best costume photo.

Blogging

What are Blogs?

Blogs are collections of articles, ideas, news, facts, opinions or inspirations that are “posted” on the internet. They are usually structured, organized by category and are updated often, if not daily. The owner of the blog is able to control the content. So how could blogs fit into a business? They provide extra content and direct attention to areas of your business that you want to feature or highlight. Use it as a unique, informal way to:

Communicate with colleagues, partners, suppliers, existing or potential customers
Showcase industry/company news, introduce new products or services, marketing promotions or provide tips
Establish a company or individual’s reputation or brand
Demonstrate expertise
Establish competitive differentiation
Simplify and accelerate the publishing process

You direct the content but let your readers guide you. You will also need to establish when you will post more articles and adhere to it. Let your readers know what to expect and when to expect it. Blogs are easy to start and easy to maintain. They are highly interactive and you can make as many blogs as you like on any subject. To make sure yours blogs are effective make sure the content is well written and current, there is visual appeal and the topics are interesting.

Email ReMarketing

Email marketing is directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people using email. It is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. By far email is the most underrated digital marketing tactic today. It gets overshadowed by SEO and newer tactics like social media but from a cost point of view alone, email is still a top performer. It usually involves sending targeted email to website visitors based on their site behavior. This type of email tactic is very effective and has become increasingly popular over the past few years mainly due to its cost effectiveness.

A good example of this is: A customer clicks on a website after receiving an email. She browses through the website and adds items to her cart but doesn’t make a purchase. She then leaves the website. The company then send an “abandoned cart” email reminder. The customer goes back onto the website and then makes a purchase.

Twitter

Twitter can be a very effective tool to help businesses grow. Below are 4 ways to achieve this:

Launch your brand

Introduce your business personality through Twitter. You can do this by asking yourself what kind of personality you would like your business to have–it can be funny, cool, informative, and exciting. Then make posts that go along with that personality and engage with your followers in the same way.

Free brand campaign

Use Twitter to get free advertising. Do this by crafting creative and eye-catching videos, images, and text. A good marketing campaign doesn’t need to be costly to get people interested in your product and business.

Share deals

Tweet information about new and exciting products and services your business offers. If you are giving out flyers in your store, include details about how customers can interact with your business on Twitter.

Build community

Loyal customers will support you in hard times and spread the word when things are going well.

To strengthen your community, make campaigns where you ask your customers to interact with each other. Support community events and host outreach programs or charity fundraisers. The more involved your business is with your community, the more loyalty you will attract.

SOSTAC

January 21, 2016February 3, 2016 ~ trishey0 ~ Leave a comment

SOSTAC is a widely used tool for marketing and business planning. It was devised and patented by PR Smith in the 1990’s. SOSTAC is an acronym for the 6 most important elements of any business. Each element asks a simple question and provides an easy starting point.

S stands for Situation Analysis – which means where are we now?

O stands for Objectives which means where do we want to go?

S stands for Strategy which summarises how we are going to get there.

T stands for Tactics which are the details of strategy.

A is for Action or implementation – putting the plan to work.

C is for Control which means measurement, monitoring, reviewing, updating and modifying.

Each element relates to a key step in the process.

SITUATION ANALYSIS: Defines where you are today in terms of product, market, customer and competition. It serves as a starting point for your marketing plan.

To put together a situation analysis, you’ll need to gather information about your product and the market you sell it in, including its size, the competitors, and the customers who purchase it.

This section should be painting a picture of your organisation and to do this, consider using some of the following methods to bring this section to life:

OBJECTIVES: Stage 2 of your digital marketing planning framework should focus on the Objective/s of your strategy. Set your objectives and then ask yourself are they reasonable and objective, short term or long term. Use the SMART test of objectives.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time.

Specific – What do I want to accomplish, purpose or benefits, who is involved, identify a location.

Measurable – A measurable goal will usually answer questions such as how much, how many, how will I know when it’s accomplished.

Achievable – How can the goal be accomplished and how realistic is the goal based on other constraints.

Relevance: Does it seem worthwhile, Is this the right time, Are you the right person etc.

Time: A commitment to a deadline helps a team focus their efforts on completion of the goal on or before the due date. A time-bound goal will usually answer these questions: When? what can I do 6 months from now? What can I do 6 weeks from now? What can I do today?

STRATEGY: How are we going to get there?

Targeting – which segments of the market do we wish to focus upon?

What do consumers want from your product or service?
How does your product meet those needs?
Where do potential buyers look for your particular product or service?
How do you differentiate from your competitors?
What is the perceived value of your product or service?
What current interactions do you have with potential clients?

The Four Ps Model

ACTION:

How the company plans to implement its strategy and tactics in order to achieve its objectives. It helps assign responsibilities and deadlines for certain tasks.

Who is going to do what
When are they going to do it
What are the key performances measurements
How is the performance going to be recorded

CONTROL: Keeping track of progress

This is the company’s evaluation of their campaign results to determine if they achieved their goals. It offers an easy way to track the progress of a plan.

Measurement
Monitoring
Reviewing
Updating
Modifying

Digital Marketing Strategy

January 21, 2016February 2, 2016 ~ trishey0 ~ Leave a comment

Digital marketing strategy is using internet space to advertise your business, promote your brand, products and services. Every business aiming to be successful should have a Digital Marketing Strategy implemented within its system. The online presence of your business is highly dependent on the way your customers and your visitors interact with your website. Without a good and well-managed digital strategy, there is a high chance that your online presence will not be felt from across the internet space. This means that your business is just there – sitting idle – but not generating sales, therefore it is crucial to focus on how you can maintain a good online presence.

Digital Marketing Strategy works by making use of search engines to attract the right kind of visitors to a business website, visitors who are not just going to look and then go, but people who are really interested in what your business has to offer. A good online marketing strategy is going to work by attracting clients that are truly interested in discussing business with you.

Your Digital Marketing Strategy offers many benefits such as increased sales generation, good search engine results exposure, higher website traffic, and the chance for better improvement of your organization’s online image and reputation. It is one internet strategy that offers you higher online visibility, global exposure, better brand awareness and high business credibility. Having a strong online presence is beneficial as it helps in raising your company’s prestige; thus, giving your business the chance to prove that you have the capacity to provide products and services of international standards.

Marketing activities continually evolve from traditional strategies especially for small businesses. The main strategies operated by small businesses are:

Direct Mail – Brochures, letters, fliers, postcards. This strategy is called a targeted strategy as information is sent to a specific target market. It is an expensive form of marketing as the business incurs design and printing costs as well as postage expenses.

Print Marketing – This includes advertising products and services through newspapers and magazines. It is known as mass marketing as it reaches different classes of people.

Broadcast Marketing – Radio and Television have always been the best form of marketing as they reach a large audience within a limited period of time.

Referral – Word of mouth – Not really a strategy but it helps a business build a loyal client base and costs nothing.

Traditional Marketing Strategies are still very practical even in this new digital era.

Content Marketing:

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action” http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing.

In other words, content marketing is a way of engaging an audience using a variety of information which can be presented in a different formats, including news, video, ebooks, infographics, question and answer articles, photos, and blogs.

Social Media Strategy.

Social media is one of the most powerful tools in your marketing campaign. If you use it correctly, you can create a strong personal connection with your prospective customers. It is important though to have a clear plan taking into account what you’re trying to achieve, who your customers are and what your competition is doing. Then it will be time to choose your channels. Not all social media platforms are the same so it is important to choose wisely. LinkedIn is a good platform to target for business-business sales while the likes of Pinterest would be better if you are in the fashion or culinary business.

There are certain things to take into consideration after you choose your social media platforms. These are as follow:

Time: How much time you can devote to a social media network
Resources: What personnel and skills do have to work with – Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest require a lot of photos and images where as the likes of Google+ and LinkedIn require more quality content.
Audience: Where to your target audience mostly hang out.

Search Strategy

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the name given to activity that attempts to improve search engine rankings. All major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have primary search results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Payment isn’t involved, as it is with AdWords or PPC (pay per click). SEO may generate an adequate return on investment, however, search engines are not paid for organic search traffic, their algorithms change, and there are no guarantees of continued referrals.

Event Marketing

Event marketing is a promotional strategy that involves face-to-face contact between companies and their customers at special events like concerts, fairs, and sporting events. Brands use event marketing entertainment (like shows, contests, or parties) to reach consumers through direct hand-to-hand sampling or interactive displays.

A successful event marketing campaign provides value to attendees beyond information about a product or service. A discount, free sample, or fun event will make customers feel like they are receiving a benefit and not just attending a live-action commercial.

As long as a business is able to track and identify their target audience, they can find a way to appeal directly to them. For example, if a company sells sporting products, they can market at a sporting event. If they sell technology products, they can offer demonstrations of the latest technologies at a convention event.

Traditional Marketing v’s Digital Marketing

January 19, 2016February 1, 2016 ~ trishey0 ~ Leave a comment

Is Digital really the new Traditional?

These days, with the advancement of the internet, there is a very heated debate on which method of marketing is better between Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing. Both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages, so let’s take a closer look at what are Traditional and Digital Marketing.

Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing is the promotion and selling of products or services in the real world. Some examples of Traditional Marketing include; Newspaper advertising, radio and TV, outdoor advertising such as PR and Promotion, brand building, direct sales, communications and cold calling.

There are several advantages in Traditional Marketing:

Real World Communications: People can touch, feel, hear and interact with this form of marketing.
TV Advertising: Approximately 89% of the world’s population own at TV set (ask.com, 2015) and is still the most effective form of marketing
Face to face selling: Unlike social marketing, people have the opportunity to meet their salesman face-to-face. A good salesman can sell a lot of products this way. An example of this would be a car salesman.
Word of mouth: This method of advertising and selling is still highly effective, and cost effective, especially for small businesses.

With advantages, there are also some disadvantages;

It’s forced on you: Traditional marketing is usually forced on the viewer / receiver, as they come across it in their daily lives. This means that the old school marketing has a very low response rate. For example, when we are watching some ads on the television or people pass us a brochure, our response is usually just ignore it or throw it away.
Lack of community: Most people don’t really have something in common with the brand. As a result, they don’t really care about its promotions because it’s useless for them. Advertisers often spend millions trying to reach people that don’t really care enough about their product.

Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is the latest method for buying and selling online. It solves a lot of the problems that traditional advertising have. That’s why it’s growing at an alarming rate, and become the preferred form of marketing nowadays.

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages and of Digital Marketing:

Homepage

Digital Marketing can reach customers more effectively and deliver immediate results and is much more cost effective than traditional methods. Some businesses also don’t need to spend huge amounts on property rentals, maintenance fees, and overhead costs for stock rooms as products can be drop shipped directly from the supplier to the customer.

More and more people are relying on mobile and social media marketing for their purchasing, leaving mass media marketing a mere 2 percent response rate. The chart below from HubSpot highlighted that up to 27% of digital marketers reported that they spend the lowest total average lead costs on social media and email marketing, with other Internet marketing tools delivering the same results as compared to traditional forms of mass marketing.