Marketing & Advertising: You think sexy. I think research, design, timelines, budgets. I think work.

March 21, 2013 Leave a comment

I get it. Marketing is the sexy beast of the business and communications world. I mean, who would want to do accounting and finance, when you could create tantalizing designs, hilarious commercials, and give people dollars off left and right? And who would want to spend the time speaking the economics of supply and demand when you could be on site at a photo shoot or creating the next YouTube video that is sure to go viral? Who doesn’t want to be reminded of the final product wrapped in the glorious wrapping paper of Christmas past?

Frankly, many of us in the creative field think of marketing in the same way. Like the LMFAO song says, “[we're] sexy and we know it.” Yep. everyone wants to be like us.

Or do they?

For some reason, people are oblivious to the road – the thoughtful, time-intense journey – taken with every creative project. And for some reason, I think we, marketers, must forget he labor-intense, spastic, frantic, desperate road we took take to get to awesomeness. To be honest, sometimes that journey is a perpetual state of hell that you only wish you could escape anytime today, yet, the vortex of creative thinking and fast-approaching deadline laced with ungodly amounts of caffeine keeps us coming back for more. But, as usual, I digress.

The point is, marketing is work. And in order to get a great outcome, you have to be willing to put in the work.

So let’s spend a minute discussing 5 key elements that goes on behind the scenes.

  1. Business goals. Take time to know what you want to achieve. And let’s set the record clear right now. You don’t just want a Facebook like and you don’t just want your video to go viral. That sounds great and all, but friend, you need to dig deeper. Your goal is much bigger than that. So think why is this important. Let give you a hint. It’s because you want more people to know about you and eventually buy from you. This is what you want to strive for. And you should go even deeper. How much do you want or NEED to sell – and in what timeframe… Now we’re talking. As a consultatnt, before I get into the nitty gritty of anything, I take a step back to this very question… what do you want to achieve. This sets the foundation for EVERYTHING going forward. Why? Well, what good is a bullseye without a target?
  2. Budget. What type of money do you have to spend? This is in no way, shape, or form a superficial question. The budget let’s me know what amount of money we have to spend, which in turn determines the marketing channels to use, designers to outsource, and frankly how much work you may have to do on your own. If you have limitless budget, well then, you can go all out. Agencies, top designers, billboards, commercials, social media, catalogs, email campaigns, and the list goes on. However, if you’re working with a modest budget, you’ll have to be a bit more selective with channels and/or have to pull a lot of the weight on your own. You may find your best bet is to make social media and old-fashioned networking your best friend. Or you may find yourself creating emails using MailChimp. And frankly, if you don’t have the skills produce quality outputs, I say leave it alone or take the time to acquire the skills. In the world of marketing, it’s either time, money or both. Your budget will often determine the balance. (Find free marketing tools here)
  3. Research. It happens all the times. Research is one of those step that happens throughout the entire marketing process – before, during, and after execution. Things you need to research include competition, audience, what you have to offer, marketing channels, other parts of your business. And this is where the infamous SWOT analysis comes into play. Do you know you’re strengths and weaknesses. What about your opportunities and threats? Whp’s out there doing the same thing you’re doing? Why would the audience want to buy from you? Why wouldn’t they want to buy from you. How do you look different from the competiton? How do you look like your competition? What other factors may affect reaching your goal.  Is black the new pink (i.e. what are the hot trends?) What is you audience willing to pay? How much disposable income do they have?  Where do they spend theirt ime? What other things are going on within your organization that are also competing for your audience’s attention. What are the current marketing trends? You want to ask these and so much more. Plus, you should keep track of and recap the performance of your marketing efforts both during and after executing. In a nutshell, at this time, you’re looking to see if you need to make quick changes, whether or not you met your goal, and whether your efforts should be repeated.
  4. Strategy. In its simplest form your strategy outlines:
    1. Objective and goals: What are you planning to achieve? Sell $5000 in shoes? Increase clientele by 50%?
    2. Tactics: What marketing channels will you use? Will you have a giveaway or contest? Will you offer a discount? How long will your offer run?
    3. Location: Where will you tactics be executed? Right dead smack in the middle of the shopping mall? In the local beauty salon? Online? All of the above?
    4. Message: “Come in today and…” “Save $5″ “We provide the best… this side of the Grand Canyon”
    5. Voice/Tone: How will you talk to your audience? Will you be witty or does your audience and/or brand call for a more sophisticated tone?
    6. Timing: How long will your marketing campaign run? Two weeks? A month? A year? (Try to always have a place of end date or frequent check points.)
  5. Getting ‘er done. Once you’ve outlined your strategy, it’s time to put the pedal to the metal. This is where writing, design, video production, proofing, editing, Facebook posts, blog posts, website goodness, and all that other good stuff happens.

Now that I think about it, I agree. Marketing is sexy. It takes time, money, and a ton of work. Just like in the real world. — Makeup anyone?

Filed under Marketing

Why Didn’t I Think of That?!

December 17, 2012 Leave a comment

meYou ever have those times when you just have a bright idea? And I don’t just mean any bright idea. I mean the bright idea that actually makes sense. I mean the kind that you even shocked yourself because of how great the idea was.

Those are the days. You feel great about your undeniable awesomeness. Then reality strikes. It’s like the humbling moment from hell.

You know… that moment when you’re look all over for your glasses and realize their on top of your head. Or the moment when you call roadside assistance because you’ve locked yourself out of your car, and when they get there, you realize your keys were in your pocket the entire time.

Truth be told, we have our highs. And we have our lows. And there are areas in our lives where our highs are pretty much someone else’s low.

Illustration: The extent of my engineering skills is taking cardboard and a soda bottle, wrapping duct tape around it, and calling it an invention. Ooh… a bottle rocket holder *that will most likely catch on fire, I might add.* I could care less about the derivative of x, I don’t know much about planes (and I’m not talking about airplanes) and if there’s something to be engineered, I would have to call an engineer.

It’s kind of the same with marketing. The lay person thinks “flyers, shiny pictures, flashy videos, street team, post cards, email, website, and the list goes on.”

But you very seldom hear this? “When I create my marketing plan, I’m going to send this to zip code:  90210 where the median age is 44.9, average adjusted gross income is income is $408,901, average household size is 2.2. And even though there are 21,396 people who reside in the 90210 zip code, I’m only going to produce and mail 20 post cards because out of that 21,396, only 20 households fit my target audience.”1

When people work with experts, they may scratch their head and say, “why didn’t I think of that?” They may wonder why they don’t always have moments of awesomeness as described in the beginning of this article. Well, it’s because you have a different type of fish to fry. It’s your job to focus on what you’re passionate about and skilled in and surround yourself with experts in other areas. It’s the marketing and advertising team’s job to choose the right tactics and come up with the fancy taglines – all so that you can focus on what’s more important in your world.

 

1 http://www.city-data.com/zips/90210.html

Filed under Uncategorized

10+ Free Marketing Tools & Resources Worth Your Blood, Sweat & Tears

April 30, 2012 Leave a comment

As we know, not much in life is free. And whoever said love was free lied. That’s like saying social media is free. Everything in life comes at a cost. If currency isn’t the cost, then you better believe blood, sweat, tears, time, energy or some other type of emotional or physical output will be required. That’s just reality. So when you read this list, rejoice only momentarily. Though these are free tools, please expect to invest blood, sweat, tears, time, intellect, and a bit of frustration to make these free marketing tools worth your while.

Now that I have that out of the way, here’s my list of top tried and true free marketing tools and resources:

Blogs & Websites

WordPress.com. Whether you’re looking to produce a simple blog or a full-fledged website, WordPress is my top pick. With customizable themes (and a little design talent), you can easily create a unique website or blog that you can truly call your own. Don’t get me wrong, those in the industry often can spot a blog from a mile away. However, blogs are becoming more acceptable for use as a website. Not only are small businesses using them, well-established organizations are also using blogs to publish and house content. WordPress.com also integrates easily with top social meida sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, which makes it just that much easier to drive traffic to your blog. Finally, plug-ins, mobile apps, and other tools adds convenience while simplifying the management of your WordPress.com account. (Note: WordPress.com isn’t to be confused with WordPress.org. WordPress.org should be left to those who are more tech savy. Plus, you will incur costs as you will need to house a blog or website utilizing WordPress.org on an independent server.)

Social Media Management

HootSuite. Perfect for managing multiple social media accounts. Hootsuite integrates nicely with Facebook (including Facebook pages), Twitter, LinkedIn, and WordPress. Whether you need to post in real time or want to schedule posts, HootSuite makes it easy to do either. In addition, with a web app as well as mobile apps, Hootsuite lets you keep up with your social media accounts whether at a desk or on the go. And with Twitter notifications pushed to your cell phone, you have the option of being notified of customer engagement without the need of actually going into an account. The main areas of content I have with Hootsuite is 1) posting links and 2) posting images. For some reason, posting links seems to be fickle. You have to post it in the area with your content instead of the area that asks for a link. If you put it in the area that asks for a link, it will only post if you shorten it using the tools. Not good for me since I create custom links with bitly for future measurement. And neither links nor images seem to show the preview on the actual social media site. Since I believe previews and images increase engagement, I take the extra step to increase engagement. There is a paid option that allows more capabilities, however, if you only need lightweight management for up to five social media accounts, you’re golden.

TweetDeck. This is one of my favorite social media management tools. Frankly, TweetDeck is what got me hooked on Twitter. If you’re using Twitter from the Twitter.com website, do yourself a favor and use a different program to access Twitter. It’s so much more fun. TweetDeck was my first choice, and I haven’t gone away from it yet. (Though there was a scare before. I digress). Like HootSuite, TweetDeck is perfect for managing several social media accounts. TweetDeck is another free marketing tool that plays nicely with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I have found it a little harder to link Facebook pages to TweetDeck and I haven’t found the mobile app to be as friendly as Hootsuite. The inability to manage Facebook pages and the lack of a mobile app I like is what places HootSuite above TweetDeck in my book from a professional point of view. However, due to it’s desktop application that allows you to view multiple columns simultaneously, TweetDeck is a winner in my book. (Not only does TweetDeck allow you to show columns related to specific social media accounts, TweetDeck also can be customized to show columns including tweets related to a search term or hashtag (#) even if you don’t follow the user. This is perfect for industry research or stalking the competition. (Come on. We’ve all done it.)

Email

MailChimp. I’ve done the research. MailChimp won over Constant Contact as the preferred email tool. Here’s the scoop. MailChimp allows you to send up to 12,000 emails per month to up to 1,999 subscribers (mailchimp.com – view the details). If you’re just getting started or don’t have a massive email list, it’s a no brainer. MailChimp provides email templates, stores your email lists as well as integrates with Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, with MailChimp, you have access to important stats that help you determine the effectiveness of your email program. Here’s the caveat, I highly recommend you invest the time into choosing the right template and customizing it based on your needs. If you need to hire a designer to help with your template, please do so. And if you need to hire a consultant or content specialist/strategist to help determine the appropriate content strategy for your email program, please do so. Otherwise, you may just be spinning wheels. That’s worth the investment.

Yesware. As a plug-in on Google Chrome and Gmail, this is one of the best friends a person in direct sales could have. Not only does it allow you to create templates for sales letters, Yesware also allows you to track your emails. And it doesn’t just show you whether or not the email has been opened/viewed. Yesware also tells you the number of times the recipient opened/viewed your email as well as how long ago the email. Note: This is only free up to a certain number of tracked emails.

Research

Public Library. Remember all that work you did trying to identify your target market. From books to databases, the public libaray may have what you need to make market research a little easier. Since the tools may not be staring you in the face, do this: walk to the information desk and ask about the available small business resources. It will definitely take time to do your research and put the tools to work for you. Large organizations have access to sophisticate marketing tools and you may have that access also. Remember, my goal is to promote smarter marketing. Stop wasting time pushing messages to the wrong people and stop being in the dark as it relates to industry trends and best practices. It’s time you grow your business up with sophisticated tools that will only benefit you in the long run. #enoughsaid

Webinars, White Papers, Blogs, eNewsletters, Magazines: Okay. Organizations don’t provide free webinars (seminars via the web), white papers, blogs or newsletters simply out of the kindness of their hearts. All of these efforts are part of their marketing strategy. With a variety of goals in mind, from positioning themselves as experts and industry leaders to generating leads and awareness, organizations provide a wealth of information through these tactics. Though you may not be ready to bite on a paid service, there’s no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of the free knowledge they’re providing. Since this information can become overwhelming, be sure to only attend, download, and subscribe to items that are beneficial to your organization. And even with that you have to be sure to be conscientious of information overload. My top 5 organization to follow are: Social Media Examiner, HubSpot, Marketing Profs, AdAge, and Mashable. (Note: Certain organizations may require you to download specific software to access their information or attend their webinar. For “print” applications, the most common software needed is the Adobe PDF reader.)

Free Classes/Seminars: Your local SCORE chapter – who is part of the Small Business Administration – and other organizations may provide free offline classes and seminars. Take advantage of these. First, determine the local organizations that provide assistance to small businesses. Then make an appointment to see a rep to learn more about the organization. Ask if they provide classes, workshops or other resources. And don’t forget to visit their website often and sign up to receive their emails as this may be where they push information regarding upcoming classes, seminars or workshops as well as other useful information.

YouTube: Make this your friend and search for your topic of choice. I bet you’ll find something. Once again, organizations and consultants are looking to generate leads. They’re willing to provide information in order to establish themselves as an expert. Be cautious of the information you receive. Remember anyone can put information on YouTube, meaning that the information they give you could be as wrong as someone calling a blue wall red. So if you aren’t well-versed on the topic, be sure to run the information by someone who is. Even a well produced video could give you horrible information. Just saying. As my friend says, “you’ve been warned.”

Other – You

Your Yapper (AKA Networking). From local meetups to simply talking to a person at the local starbucks, networking is a key marketing tool. I sometimes think people get tired of hearing about my consulting business. And they probably do. But guess what? When they’re looking for a marketing consultant, I am top of mind. Goal achieved. So, toot your own horn. Even if the person you’re talking to doesn’t have a need for your product or service, they may know someone who does. Don’t count anyone out. However, do be wise about who you should spend more time vs. those who would simply benefit from a business card, warm smile, and quick overview of your offerings. And here’s what’s even better about networking – people take the time to tell you about resources you didn’t even know existed. (Shout out to my friends and family for being on top of it. They’re always sending or telling me about something that they believe I may deem valuable)

Blood, Sweat & Tears (AKA Hard Work). This is your number one free marketing tool. Either you put the time and energy into it, you pay someone to do it, or it doesn’t get done at all. It’s as simple as that. Blogs don’t write themselves, emails don’t send themselves, and you can’t benefit from the research if you don’t take the time to gather AND process it. From anxiety to hours of writing to bonafide tears, I’ve experienced it all. Like I said in a different post said, “Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it won’t cost you.” I’m a personal witness. But I can also testify to the fact that it truly is worth it.

Live, love & prosper

Filed under Digital Marketing, Entrepreneurship, General Business, Marketing, Social Media Tagged with , , , , , , ,

A Freelancer’s Cure for the Blessing & Curse: The perfect workday

April 4, 2012 Leave a comment

If anyone knows, it’s me; being an entrepreneur is hard stuff. You’re either working at home or from some virtual office where your computer is practically attached to your hip, your iPad is nearby, and your cell phone, i.e. minicomputer, is also close in the vicinity. In our virtual life, we’re over-connected, but in real life, we spend many hours disconnected from real, personal interaction.

While there are several pros related to working for oneself, these pros also have their own cons – it’s the infamous blessing and curse.

Pro: You set your own schedule.

Con: You set your own schedule. You have to be disciplined enough to find clients and get your work done. If you don’t get your work done, you don’t get paid. Period.

Pro: You’re your own boss.

Con: As someone told me, you actually have many bosses. Each of your clients becomes your boss. The only thing is that they’re only your boss for as long as you’re working together.

Pro: You don’t have to worry about annoying coworkers.

Con: You miss the personal interaction with your coworkers. These people became your family. You share laughs, tears, jokes, and even have an opportunity to brainstorm and develop brilliant ideas together.

I’ll tell you…the first and last are the two pros and cons I struggle with most. Missing my friends and the disciple to get things done without repetition. Repetition gets old, and like with any other creative, it may be one of the quickest ways to burnout and/or limited productivity. Give me my freedom, and it’s a little easier.

However, I must say, I had a great day today – and I want to share the wealth of how I did it.

To begin, I didn’t have a set schedule. I woke up, ran an errand, and then hit the gym for a workout. After that I reactivated my cable. This was HUGE! In my case, cable is what I needed to feel reconnected to the outside world…to not feel so alone. Going to Starbucks, the library, and other virtual offices just didn’t do it for me. TV is a distraction and an escape. Virtual offices feel like work. The distraction of TV makes work more pleasant.

Then I went on to client work – writing social media posts and submitting to client for approval. Though this doesn’t sound like much, anyone who manages social media knows this takes a bit of art and intuition (i.e. mind reading) to make sure you don’t have a lot of revisions to the posts after the client’s review.

Once I was done with the posts, I took a break. Yes. There was work to do, but there a break was necessary. I took a trip downtown. I discovered new destinations, took a few pics, and had a chance to take advantage of a couple of local food establishments. And the bonus is that I had am now number 2 among my friends on the Foursquare leaderboard. Woot!

Now, I’m at the library and back to work. In addition to writing this blog post, I’ve already found a couple of books related to the biz. I’ll probably do more client work as well as look for a good read for my break/free time in the future.

To sum it up, my perfect workday consisted of taking care of work while spending time catering to my emotional and physical health. Entrepreneurship and freelancing is a blessing. We’ve been entrusted with skills and discipline that not everyone has or wills to have, but if we don’t continuously take care of ourselves or our business, it can become a curse. While taking care of business, remember “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” but if no one was diligent enough to continue building, it wouldn’t be what it is today. So take time to smell the roses and take care of self – all while keep business goals and responsibilities also in mind.

Live, love, prosper.

Regina

Filed under Entrepreneurship, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

10 Ways to Spot a Creative from a Mile Away

March 21, 2012 1 Comment

You say, “I need a creative person on my team.”

I say, “be careful what you ask for.” Creative people (also known as Creatives or creative types) are strange beings. I’m one of them. We find excitement in things the rest of the world cares a little less about, and we’re okay with it. In fact, we have our circle that’s just like us. And organizations love us because we keep things fresh. We think out of the box. In fact, many like to live vicariously through us. We have guts! Guts to live on the edge. And we love it.

Since Creatives have a hard time conforming, there are those who have a hard time with how we operate. It’s not that Creatives are bad. We just like to have fun. Those of us who learn how to balance the road between comforming and creativity do well. The others, well…have you ever heard of a consultant…or a beach bum…or someone simply chasing their dreams?

Now that we have that out of the way, the fun stuff – spotting your creative:

  1. They’re either a hipster or a geek. Their either socially awkward or they like to live on the edge – or they may be both. Allow this in the organization. It’s good for their creative minds.
  2. They get a little too excited about words, colors, typography, photography, and the arts. It’s okay you don’t get it. This is just part of their natural make up.
  3. They have (or used to have) random hair coloring, ink on their body, or some redunkulous (ridiculous) hair cut or hair style. Face it. Living with the same hair color style is B-O-R-I-N-G. I change my hair who knows how many times in a year. It’s all professional and presentable. If I had to stay the same…[insert scream]
  4. 9 time out of 10, they’re going to say something you don’t want to hear. Be okay with this. This is why you hired them. Creatives invent and take things to new levels. If you stunt their ability to be creative and push against the grain, you may stunt your organization’s success.
  5. They think of something that you didn’t. Be open to their ideas. They use a different side of the brain than others, and they help explore opportunities other people in the organization didn’t (and may not ever) think of.
  6. They’ll look like they’re slacking. They may not come in on time and they may seem to socialize a little too much. Clocks and boxes are not meant for Creatives. They have to be able to express themselves openly. When you box in a creative person, you also box in their creativity. Don’t do this. When you get the right one, they will work their butts off.
  7. They’re in tune with the latest technology. Creatives are early adopters of technology. Why? Because it’s different and cool. They don’t like to conform. Don’t expect their technology to conform either. They are the first with the latest devices. They know what creative programs to use. They know when it’s worth getting the upgrade and when it’s not.
  8. They’re surrounded by other Creatives. As the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.” Where there’s one creative, you can be sure to find another, and guess what they’ll be talking about? Music, TV, typography, grammar, their blog, their website, their next personal project, their next professional project…you get the gist.
  9. Drama is part of their life. Yes. Creative people can get a bit dramatic. Expression – or should I say over-expression - is their thing. Frankly, they consider the dramatic expressions kinda fun. (Note: This type of drama is not to be confused with the petty “drama” that harms relationships.)
  10. Their cubicles are, well, different. From pictures to posters to trinkets to random personal or professional creations, you’ll see this at the desk of a creative. While everyone likes to make their cube “at home,” Creatives take it just a bit further. You will be wowed, inspired, or appalled by their unique expression. However, whether you’re wowed, inspired, or appalled, the one thing you won’t say is that it’s status quo.

Creatives are meant to create. Creating means inventing or modifying. This is just a natural extension of our DNA – and  it’s a huge pro for all organizations. Creativity is needed for growth. Accept it. You need us. We need you too.

Live, love, prosper.

Filed under General Business, Marketing, Uncategorized

Twitter Etiquette for Beginners: Part 2 – Build relationships

March 19, 2012 Leave a comment

Part 1 focused on general Twitter rules, where rule 5 was build relationships. As stated in Part 1, this isn’t to be an all-inclusive guide on all things Twitter. Instead, this is intended to help you understand what it means to be polite and acceptable when using Twitter. While this is intended for businesses, I’m sure there are individuals who can also benefit from these Twitter tips.

The Next 5 Lessons: Building relationships & beyond

  • Engage with you followers by using speaking to your followers using “@” mentions, sending a direct message, or even retweeting something they’ve posted. This is a great way to build relationships and say, “hey I’m interested in you too.”
  • Respond to people who have given you a shout out, “@” mentioned you, have sent you a direct message, or retweeted one of your posts. If you don’t respond, this is almost as bad as not speaking back to someone who said hello to you – and frankly, that’s rude. (Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to respond to people who send you SPAM.) Hot Twitter tip: Using a smart phone app and setting up a notification should will greatly help monitor these interactions.
  • Be a person. For some reason, organizations forget they are human. Instead, they become this brand or icon. While you need to be consistent with your brand, a simply random post lets your follower know you’re a person. Maybe you can talk about a remodel. Talk about what the environment in the office is like. Or just maybe even tweet what you’re having for lunch and how great it is. If you can tie it in with your brand, even better. This just lets people know, “Hey. I’m a person.” By the way, this means you can’t schedule everything  – you’ll actually need to be on Twitter (or a Twitter app) sometimes.
  • Say something valuable. Many times on Twitter we like to businesses like to push their product or service. ROI is the final goal, right? It is. However, you have to balance pushing your offering with actually saying something your user wants to hear. In fact, I know one brand who doesn’t directly push their product often. Instead, they reinforce their brand using humor, thus, building brand equity. This along with the other tactics they’ve used to in a rebranding effort has made me consider making the purchase over other top names.
  • Follow back. When people follow you on Twitter, it means they have interest in what you have to offer. Don’t be so rude to not follow back. I know that when you follow a lot of people, your Twitter timeline becomes hard to manage and follow. However, this gives you an opportunity to put the Twitter list function to use.

Filed under Digital Marketing, Marketing, Social Media Tagged with , , , , ,

Twitter Etiquette for Beginners: Part 1 – The basics

March 12, 2012 Leave a comment

NOTE: This message is intended for twitter novices and even some who think they are twitter experts. This is NOT intended to help you know how to use Twitter or help be an all-inclusive guide on all things Twitter.  Learn what annoys Twitter users, can potentially get you blocked by users, can get you reported as SPAM, or can simply hinder your number of followers. If you think you know everything, maybe you don’t want to read. All others…enjoy.

The First 5 Lessons in Twitter Etiquette

 

  • Tweet. No, seriously. Do you know the amount of people who create Twitter accounts but then don’t tweet. This is not cool. In fact, if you’re looking to increase your number of followers, be sure that you have a significant number of tweets under your account. If you don’t tweet, there’s a chance that the end users won’t follow you.
  • Tweet frequently. Not just do you need to tweet, you need to tweet more than every once in a blue moon. On the other hand, this doesn’t mean tweet obnoxiously. By tweeting, you help others know “who you are.” And once you start engaging back and forth, you may even build some valuable relationships.
  • Complete your Twitter profile. This is how people know who you or your organization is and what you represent. This is also a way people decide whether or not they want to follow you. No profile is super suspect, especially with the number of Spammers out there.
  • Get to know the language. It’s TWEET people. You can tweet something or have a twitter post. I hate when people say that they like to Twitter something. There’s also hashtags (#), at mentions (which looks like “@”),DM which means to direct message which goes directly to your user, and RT
  • Build relationships. Social media is a thing of the new. Social networking is how the social sites began. Media is a one way street. Networking implies a give and take. It implies building relationships and getting to know one another. However, organizations make the mistake of being just one way, and this can be simply due to the fact that they’re oblivious to the fact that they don’t know how to interact. To determine how to interact, you have to determine how your audience is using the social networking site. This may take a bit of primary and secondary research, including simple observing to make this determination.

Filed under Digital Marketing, Marketing, Social Media Tagged with , , , ,

Why I Removed Email from my Marketing Strategy

March 5, 2012 Leave a comment

It’s true. Email is a highly effective strategy for internet marketing. It definitely drives reaches your target audience as well as drives conversion. It’s a great way to increase awareness of a product or service, educate the market, and even get the market to take an action. And many people have opted in to receive the email…meaning they have said, “Yes. Send me junk mail valuable advertisements. I want to spend my money with you.”

But email is time consuming…and FOCUS is the word of the day. While on Twitter, I previously posed the question “how should a marketer spend their time?” The response that stuck out the most, spend your time where you make your money. Well, duh. It was a duh answer, but it was profound at the same time.

We, as marketers, get caught up in the hype of all the different tactics that we want to jump on them all. In reality though, that’s not always smart. We need to invest our time where we can see return. That’s what smart marketing is all about.

Since then, I have refined my marketing strategy. I’m not simply focusing on the fun, free, or even quick things. I recently focused on efforts that builds awareness and generates leads. From there, I have to close the deal.

Today, I pose this question, where have you gotten lost in the hype? Where are you wasting your time? What can you do better? How can you make your marketing efforts worth your while? How can you live, love AND prosper?

Regina R. Patterson, M.B.A.

Filed under Marketing Tagged with , , ,

Secrets of a Web Marketer: The stuff we think, but don’t always say

February 27, 2012 2 Comments

  1. Pinterest is the hot new thing, and we’re already effing it up, putting our little greasy paws in it. And we’re not going to stop until the next fad comes along.
  2. Competition is only a click away. That’s why we try to make sure you don’t EVER leave our site.
  3. We have a very short window to capture your attention and get you to take action. If we can get you to do this…shazaam, we’ve done our job.
  4. People are still scared to make transactions online…so umm yeah, the site better be secure.
  5. Design does make a difference…so get it right…or pay someone to get it right for you.
  6. In real estate it’s “location, location, location.” In content marketing it’s “ease of use, ease of use, ease of use.”
  7. Communicate quickly and clearly. No one is going to read through all the mess.
  8. There is an information hierarchy, but I’d have to kill you if I told you (j/k…that’s just kidding for you who still haven’t mastered those darn acronyms).
  9. We can smell a template, blog, and self-developed website from far away…so if you do it yourself, make sure you implement best practices. Otherwise…busted!
  10. I’m only on Facebook because you are.
  11. Twitter…how can I get them to my site in 140 characters or less?
  12. Social media isn’t the end all be all, but it’s free and EVERYONE is pining for it.
  13. A deep link is the best link. Don’t link a user to a destination and make them search for the information. That’s kinda rude.
  14. People die to hear these words: widget, flash, iWhatever, app, user-experience, user interface, HTML, code, CSS, SEO, SEM, social media, facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Pinterest, blog, Instagram, interactive, engaging, conversion…and the list goes on. Load your conversation with these words, and you’re instantly the smartest thing since the person who invented slice bread.

Filed under Marketing, Online Content, Website Design Tagged with , ,

INFOGRAPHIC: 5 Basic Questions to Ask Before Developing a Marketing Communications Strategy

February 20, 2012 Leave a comment

Filed under General Business, Marketing Tagged with , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,477 other followers