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The Rise in Digital Media – Continued

The nights are drawing in and winter is on its way, so what better time for companies looking to boost their marketing by getting online and involved in social media on the dark and dreary afternoons that we have been experiencing lately. Following on from Joshua Spencer’s presentation on digital marketing in July, we examine some more benefits to digital media and what it can do for your business.
Digital marketing is hugely effective for connecting with consumers in an interactive and engaging way. An increasing number of people are interacting and communicating within the social media sphere, and therefore investing in an online presence for your business is very important. Effective use of social media is no longer an option for companies, it‘s now a requirement.

Last week the luxury fashion brand Burberry told the Financial Times that they were investing more of their marketing budget into the digital arena, a total of 60%, more than three times the average.  In the past, Burberry relied heavily on traditional methods of marketing, such as print advertising; however they now feel that they need to be totally connected with whomever touches their brand and engaging with their audience via social media is a means of achieving this. The shift to digital marketing highlights how quickly industries are moving away from traditional methods of marketing in order to interact with consumers globally. Reaching out to consumers on multiple channels makes it more important than ever for a business to make sense of this new ‘marketing mix’

Create a two way conversation

As we have mentioned in the past, digital media can be a valuable asset not just for larger B2C organisations but also for your everyday SME. Twitter is currently dominating the marketing landscape, used by 82% of the B2B social mix. When it comes to expanding a business, “tweeting” has real value, enabling a two way conversation with customers, as well as promotion for any organisation. It is used by small businesses, as well as global companies, facilitating customer feedback, free marketing, improved brand recognition and a stronger connection with customers. Starbucks use of social media is a brilliant example of this.  The coffeehouse giant posts new offers and participates in interactive discussions with their customers about the offers on twitter daily. Computer company ComCast also offers a friendly Twitter customer support, including a photograph of the member of staff you are talking to.

Audience participation

Video is another personal yet dynamic way to engage with consumers, allowing them to participate and interact with a brand in order to obtain more information. Google recently reported that 35% of B2B marketers already using online video will increase their video budgets in the future.   A tool which is mainstream and accessible to all, video enables businesses to accumulate larger audiences quickly and effectively. The value of video is reflected in HSBC’s recent campaign. The bank held a competition for a £15,000 student bursary last year, and the decision to keep the media interactive was integral to the success of campaign. Students uploaded a 90 second video to Facebook stating why the money would help them change the world. Response to the campaign was outstanding: there were 50,000 interactions in one month and more than 2 million impressions. Check out Sprites Zero Skate ‘n’ Splash video below and HSBC’S winning entry.

This interactive YouTube video lets you instantly skip from one segment to the next, deciding exactly what you’ll see and when you’ll see it. Using keyboard keys 4 to 9, you can replay the skateboard tricks, skip others, and create your own rhythmic masterpieces.The promotional YouTube video, dreamed up by Coca-Cola Germany for Sprite Zero, minimizes branding because it’s creators “wanted the focus to be on the content and the interactivity.” They added, “This sort of video is quite different from what we at Coca-Cola usually do, in terms of ‘edginess’ and branding.”

 ‘Likes’ are not the be all and end all

Facebook is used by 67% of B2B marketers and 200 million people access Facebook via a mobile device each day.  It is guaranteed to expand your business presence on the web. However, it is also important to be careful with the type of interaction your social media attracts.  A recent study has shown that the more “likes” a brand has on Facebook, the less participation there was to a page by consumers.  A study by L2, an organisation for digital innovation, has found that the quality and not the quantity of consumers is extremely important.  Therefore, in the fast changing social media landscape, it is important for businesses to keep their pages up to date and interactive.

Another huge advantage of social media is that it is a free or low cost marketing strategy.  It brings a new dimension to an organisation’s communication – forecasts indicate traditional marketing will represent only 30% of SMB marketing budgets by 2015.  The objective of social media marketing is to draw the customer closer to your brand. Once engaged, maintaining an effective dialogue must be a priority. It is no good collecting likes, connections and followers. The real power of social media is only realised through regular communication and relationship building. Only then can your start turning followers into customers.

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Marketing Trends 2012

2012 has arrived and we are very excited! It is time to look at the challenges and opportunities ahead and start planning your marketing strategy for 2012, if you haven’t done so already.
Relationships are key

According to numerous marketing sources and we’d agree, the future of marketing lies in customer relationships. This is supported by the rise of social media, where consumers can engage with your brand at anytime. Gone are the days when companies could control external communications concerning their organisation. The power now resides with the consumer or client. Listening and responding to their needs is vital.

Traditional advertising is over

Your customer’s ability to identify whether what’s being promoted is something useful to them or just “advertising” has become infinitely more acute. According to Andrew Baird at Amazing Business, ignoring ads is at an all time high, so successful marketing relies on being shared online. Customers can then “like”, recommend and share their opinions through this medium.

Word of mouth marketing

Now more than ever, a consistent online presence is crucial to business success. Through conducting regular client surveys on behalf of our clients, TLC Business has persistently found that referrals, whether on or offline, are still a vital tool for sourcing a new service. The rise in social media activity has made it much easier for consumers to recommend or advise against a service and have their message shared far beyond their own social circles. This is further verified by the Buyersphere 2011 report on changing B2B buyer behavior, which identifies referrals as one of the most influential channels when appointing and sourcing a supplier.

Integrated on and offline

Alongside active consumer engagement, TLC Business emphasises the importance of  on and offline marketing convergence.  With all the noise about digital marketing, it is easy to forget that more traditional marketing methods can still be incredibly effective. Using both mediums together can result in greater returns on your marketing investment. Integral to successfully implementing this strategy is ensuring all your marketing efforts support each other, working in unison, rather than each independently in its own bubble. For successful integration, make sure online and offline business campaigns are consistent, coherent and in sync with each other.

QR codes

TLC Business’ Director, Josh Spencer, believes that 2012 will be the year QR codes finally realise their potential and become more widely used. For those that haven’t heard, QR is short for Quick Response. These barcodes are used to take a piece of information from an advertisement or product and transfer it to a mobile device. For small businesses, this code can be added to a wide variety of marketing material, including: stationery, adverts, promotional items, posters, stands etc. and direct users to a specific landing page. Using this tool means that information about your business can be accessed instantaneously and at any time. Crucially, it also gives businesses a fantastic way of measuring the effectiveness of a variety of marketing tools that previously would have proved difficult.

Don’t get lazy

Don’t rest on your laurels. What has worked in the past will not necessarily prove effective today. Make sure you adopt strategies that are up-to-date with today’s “switched on” consumers and exploit the latest improvements in marketing tools and technology. For businesses looking to grow their client base and improve customer relations, developing a well rounded and relevant marketing plan is essential. In today’s fast moving society, marketing strategies should be constantly evolving and changing; tools that were successful in 2011, may not be as effective in 2012.

Do your homework

The beginning of a new year also allows business owners the opportunity to diversify their marketing. Research shows that 57% of entrepreneurs interviewed said that marketing was their top priority this year. SMEs that want to continue to build their reputation in the marketplace in 2012 must be aware of consumer needs. Experimenting with different channels will enhance your opportunities, so what better time to try new approaches. Determine those channels that are most profitable and those that aren’t. The New Year marks a time for change, and small businesses are no exception. By refreshing your marketing strategy, you can breathe new life into your business and make 2012 a great your for your business.

We are looking forward to joining you on your journey!

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Top Marketing Tips For January

  1. E-myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber. You may have heard us mention this great book in the past. E-Myth Revisited should be required reading for anyone thinking about starting a business or for those who have already taken that risky step.
  2. Having multiple social networking accounts online means having to individually update your profile picture on each network. Avatar Harmony helps you synchronise your profile pictures between Facebook and Twitter.
  3. Create your own QR code online. QR codes are a square matrix type barcode that hold encrypted information. They are widely used in marketing to provide an extremely easy way for end users to be directed to web content, initiate an SMS, and receive contact information as a Vcard and more.

 

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Safety First

You may be aware that earlier this week the BBC launched their ‘Share Take Care’ campaign, encouraging everybody to actively protect their online activity. As a society, we are concerned about the photographs, status updates and information we share with fellow family members, co-workers and friends, taking time to monitor our own security settings. However, how many of us apply the same effort and methods to protecting our business accounts online?
Social media presents businesses with many opportunities, including customer support and the ability to communicate quickly with customers and suppliers. The communications giant NETGEAR recently commissioned a piece of research looking at how important social media has become for businesses. NETGEAR asked 300 small business owners and IT managers how they were using social media in their company. Nearly half of those polled said they were using social media to stay in touch with their customers and nearly 60% said they were using social networking for internal communications. But only 29% said that had made moves to educate their staff about the risks social media may present to their business and what they should be doing to monitor their brand awareness online.

The reputational risks of social media can easily equal or exceed the reputational benefits. The reason is simple; the vast reach of social media platforms enable brands to communicate every second, globally, providing both opportunities and risks. You may remember last year, TLC Business highlighted key areas to help protect your business online.  We thought now would be the prime time to inform you again of the simply steps you can perform, in order to secure your business and its reputation on social networking sites.

Educating employees:

The developments in social media are here to stay, so empower your employees with best practices and guidelines.

  • Create, update, communicate and enforce a company policy that specifies social media do’s and don’ts, including how employees may interact with visitors and use visitors’ information.
  • Identify the key players who will be responsible for developing, executing, and monitoring your social media strategy. Assign at least two administrators for your account. The admins should monitor and promptly respond to new Facebook and Twitter policy changes and features, always considering the impact on the business
  • Sit down with your team and explore the topics and voice you would like to channel to your target audience; create a content plan that employees can follow and use as a guideline throughout the year.

Monitoring conversation online:

Here at TLC Business we recommend Google Alerts as a vital tool to monitor what is being said about your brand. Google Alerts is about understanding what type of information is out there that’s tied to your name, and most importantly your business.

Google Alerts are email updates that are sent to you for whatever keyword or phrase you decide to set the alert. As soon as your name is mentioned anywhere on the Internet, you are sent an alert immediately.

There are other tools out there that do a similar thing but be aware that the results are not definitive, the web is a massive place.

There are only 5 pieces of information that you need to provide to start using Google Alerts:

  1. The word or phrase you want to be alerted about: company name, your name, your products, etc
  2. The type of search: news, blogs, video, discussions, or everything
  3. How often: as it happens, once a day, or once a week
  4. Volume: only the best results or all results
  5. Where the alert should be delivered: email address or feed

One of the latest social media activities to come under fire is a campaign ran by McDonalds. The fast food chain started a campaign on Twitter promoting #MeetTheFarmers, to show how good McDonalds is, but suddenly they changed gears to #McDstories; which unfortunately backfired when people shared their horrifying stories.  See below for some of the tweets circulated worldwide:

  • #McDStories Take a McDonalds fry, let it sit for 6 months. It will not deteriorate or spoil like a normal potato. It will remain how it was
  • ‘These #McDStories never get old, kinda like a box of McDonald’s 10 piece’

Like any business feature or marketing activity, creating and communicating a clear plan is crucial to avoid mistakes. If you are worried how your brand is going to be perceived online, spend time evaluating the right message you want to send out to your target market, what information they will find useful and more importantly what messages can be monitored and dealt with by your team.

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March Top Marketing Tips

  1. Not long now until March 30th when Facebook roll out the timeline update to the business pages. The Timeline is a cosmetic change to the format for displaying content on Facebook profiles. The Timeline format makes Facebook content more engaging and highlights the history associated with the page in a chronological order that makes it easier to navigate to older material. Take a look at the TLC Business Facebook page.
  2. TouchRetouch HD is an app that lets you remove unwanted content or objects from your photos, using just your finger and iPad. This is a great app for editing shadows, wires, blemishes, or even a person that you want to remove from your photograph.
  3. Pixable is a new app which sorts images from your Facebook and Twitter feeds into piles such as “Top of the Day,” “New on Twitter” and “New Profile Pics,” making them easy to view and interact with. The app is accessible via the web and can be downloaded from the iTunes store for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
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Top Marketing Tips April 2012

  1. Total Send is the latest email marketing web service that is easy to use and represents a viable alternative to established platforms, Campaign Monitor and Mail Chimp. It manages subscribers, sends campaigns and tracks results. Total Send includes all the features you need for running a successful email marketing campaign for your business and is extremely cost effective. Click here for more information.
  2. If you find yourself taking a long time converting your meeting notes into a digital format, take a look at Dragon Naturally Speaking. After initial scepticism, we have found it incredibly effective at reducing the time we spend typing up our notes. For more information click here.
  3. Keen to monitor your social media activity’s effectiveness? TwentyFeet is tool that pulls in data from Facebook and Twitter and presents it in graph form. TwentyFeet’s stats include friends and followers, retweets, mentions and Facebook status comments. To find out more click here.
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Growing your greens

Strategies to help your green marketing flourish:

When it comes to corporate responsibility and green marketing, an increasing number of companies are recognising the importance of including environmental sustainability amongst their goals….TLC Business are one of them.

Green marketing definitions can be a little confusing, since green marketing can refer to anything from promoting the environmental benefits of a product, advertising a company’s sustainability initiatives, to simply channelling your marketing message in a more eco-friendly method.

When many people think of SMEs going green, methods such as recycling paper and conducting more meetings over the phone spring to mind. However ‘green’ strategies can incorporate even more day-to-day business activities, from using social media more effectively, to the tools you use to market your product or service.
Green marketing can take many forms, below are some of the systems and tools you can adopt in your business:

  • Green digital media
    Green marketing has gone digital with the help of social media and technology. Utilising Facebook or Twitter instead of print advertisements and providing digital versions of press packs are all steps businesses can take to more effective green marketing. Below are examples of how global companies are using social media within their green marketing mix:General Electric has introduced the Ecomagination Challenge, which challenges people all over the world, from businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators to students, to generate ideas how to improve the planet’s energy future. This project is promoted through the company’s website, blog and Twitter.IBM has created a Smarter Planet blog and encourages visitors to participate in conversations about creating a more sustainable planet. IBM also uses Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to keep the conversations alive.
  • Re-design your materials with green in mind.
    One of the most effective ways to go green is to consider the potential environmental impact of your printed material at the design stage. That means taking into account factors like paper weight, item size, and mailing format at the beginning. This may seem extreme but a smaller, lighter piece will not only reduce the amount of paper you ultimately use, but also the emissions of the trucks delivering your pieces.Puma is a great example of a company planning ahead. The major sports brand is reducing its carbon footprint by redesigning the packaging for its shoes. Instead of packaging the shoes in a traditional cardboard box, which then necessitates a plastic carrier bag, Puma has designed a new product, dubbed “The Clever Little Bag”. Puma’s new packaging is made of a reusable shoe bag with a built in handle, thus eliminating the need for both a cardboard box and a carrier bag at the end of a sale. Puma’s green effort alone is projected to reduce the company’s paper consumption by over 65 percent, as well as cutting down on annual carbon emissions by 10,000 tons.
  •  Clean up your database:
    An up-to-date database can also play a key part in your green marketing strategies. Whether you are sending a direct mail campaign using your new eco friendly marketing collateral or you are sending regular e-marketing campaigns. You can save money, reduce paper use and delivery impact, simply by cleaning up and reducing the size of your database. Regularly updating mailing lists and removing undeliverable addresses, duplicates and bounced email addresses, will play a part in saving resources.
  • Adopting a lifecycle approach:
    Selecting green materials and products for marketing materials and adopting a lifecycle approach that looks at the whole campaign, thereby foreseeing areas of potential waste. More and more companies similar to Recycle Match are evolving. Recycle Match operates on the philosophy that one company’s trash is another company’s treasure and matches businesses who have waste products, such as used billboards, textile waste, and salvaged building materials, with businesses who need them.
  • The Green Community:
    Finally, community is another component to successful green marketing. The green revolution has caused the growth of thousands of organisations and causes, each championing their own method of fighting for the environment. Find the businesses that fight for green living in the area, which relates to your product or service and contact them for support.

With the current emphasis on going green, recycling, and saving the planet, it would be foolish not to engage with the green consumer. However, it is important that your actions are credible and sincere. It is all too easy to employ ‘green wash’ when communicating your ‘green’ policies. Organisations that do this run the risk of attracting negative feedback and potentially damaging their reputation. A business doesn’t have to implement all of the suggestions above, simply adopting one or two can be a step in the right direction. Like any marketing or business activity, having a plan is essential.  Your green plan doesn’t need to be complicated or lengthy, but you should outline the steps you need to take to ensure effective execution and alignment with your overall marketing strategy.

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April’s Top Marketing Tips

  1. A selection of SME apps for your blackberry. From a travel assistant that gives users instant access to travel and weather updates to an app to help you source the best place for a business lunch.
  2. Mylikesbox – Facebook application that provides an easy way to view your Facebook likes.  Each page’s thumbnail image is shown for easy recognition. You can also filter your Likes by viewing pages according to their categories.
  3. Do Less – Another eBook from Seth Godin. Learn how to be pickier about what you do and who you do it for so you can enjoy more of your life.
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Blog your way to the top

Image: Social Ninja

In today’s digital society, blogging is not confined to personal use alone. The medium is a powerful communication channel for many different sized organisations and to some, it represents an integral component of their marketing and social media strategy.
Why is this the case and more importantly, why should my business blog? Well the answer is simple. Every business, from finance to catering, has a voice and more and more consumers are interested in hearing what your organisation has to say. A business blog helps add a personality to your brand, enabling you to engage with your market on a more human and ultimately, more meaningful level.

Topic is key. Think about how your blog could help your customer. What questions do you get asked? We regularly tell our clients to write a blog, with many stating ‘Who would want to read something I have written’…Well you would be surprised.  Regular blogs are an excellent way to communicate with your potential customers, introducing them to your organisation, whilst sharing your thoughts on the latest industry trends and news; all helping towards strengthening your position as an expert within the industry.

A well-established blog can help influence an audience. When clients start conversations, the chances are these days many are doing it online, using social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or their own blog. Social media serves as an important mode of interaction and provides you with an ideal channel to your target audience.  Consumer habits are dramatically changing, with many using social media to source companies, recommend services and start conversations with like-minded individuals and businesses.  Posting blogs on social media sites can help inform and spark debate with your target audience and more importantly, drive traffic back to your website.

Google loves content.  Getting to the first page of the search engines is always a priority for website owners. Providing good quality, unique content, such as blog articles, is a good starting point to achieving this. Blogging provides you with the opportunity to be present, be found, and get your business noticed by your target market. Search engines favour sites that are both active and also adding new content on a regular basis. A blog accomplishes both of these features. By having a blog you are demonstrating that your site is not static and that the information on the site is not only current and up-to-date but also increasing. Simple steps such as utilising keywords and internal and external linking to relevant and complimentary sites are all factors which can not only develop your blog, but also improve your SEO.

Blogging not only shares your expertise and improves website visibility; it also opens doors to many opportunities. Successful bloggers are often asked to expand their blog for industry magazine articles and columns, or attend the latest product launches and conferences, as their voice is seen as influential in their industry. A prime example of a simple blog working its way to the top is Mashable. Mashable was once a one man blog that soon turned into a popular news site, tackling social media and the digital culture. Bored by schoolwork, Scotsman Peter Cashmore skipped college and began writing about how people were using technology and the new world of social networking. From March 2012 Mashable was worth a staggering £127 million with over 2,775,000 Twitter followers and over 838,400 fans on Facebook.

Producing a blog that attracts a following like Mashable’s doesn’t happen every day, but a well maintained and regularly updated blog is an effective marketing tool. The only thing it will cost you is your time.

Start your blog today!

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Drill-down into your social activity

Following on from our July marketing seminar, last month we provided you with a blog dedicated to the importance of Google Analytics and what your business should be measuring. As promised, in this blog we delve deeper into the world of social analytics to provide you with additional tools to help you make sense of your social media presence.
Identifying social media ROI is a difficult task for any business.  We have seen a dramatic rise in the number of businesses using social media within their marketing mix over the last few years; however, many have jumped on the bandwagon with little consideration for the actual benefits to their business. Identifying ROI has been, for the most part, fairly elusive for marketers and business owners; provoking questions such as, ‘How do I know if social media activity will generate business?  Is this really an effective way to spend my time?’

In the past, a measurement of social media success was determined by the number of followers or ‘Likes’ generated through Facebook and Twitter. Many businesses struggled to see the bigger picture, often basing their decisions on assumptions, because defining a meaningful ROI was difficult. However, recent changes to Google Analytics have helped ensure marketers and businesses owners are now better informed about the impact of their social media activities on their website traffic, helping them establish how to spend their social media time and budget most effectively.

Google Analytics have taken their social analytics tools a step further with the intention of delivering the following information:

  • The full value of traffic to your website coming from social networking sites and the ability to measure how they lead to direct conversions or assist in future conversions.
  • What social activities are happening both on and off of your site to help you optimise user engagement and increase social key performance indicators (KPIs).
  • Make better, more efficient data-driven decisions in your social media marketing programs.

So how will the latest Google Analytics developments help businesses achieve the above?

New data is now available under the “Social” tab in Google Analytics, which includes:

Overview:

The overview report provides data from all the other social reports and contains a Social Value visualisation of how social networks contribute to website conversions.

Sources:

The Sources report shows the source activity based on social referrers. Google unifies different URLs that can be used to send traffic from one social network. For example, Twitter can send traffic from both twitter.com and t.co. Traffic from both sources are combined under the category of Twitter.

Pages:

This report highlights social activity per page, what happened on and off the site.

Conversions:

The Conversions data provides a quick view of which social sources drove conversions on the site.

Social Plugins:

Social Plugins is a summary of pages and the social activity that happened, such as clicking on a like, tweet or +1 button.

Social Visitors Flow:

Social Visitors Flow is a visual presentation of how visitors from social properties are navigating your website. Assuming the goal of your social media campaign is to get more traffic to your website, this report gives you insight into which social platforms are sending the most traffic to your site and what your social visitors are doing once they get there.

The reports available have the ability to drill-down further into data and reflect things like comments, shares or likes to help you identify successful social media campaigns and what works for your business.

At TLC Business, we believe measuring the ROI of any marketing activity is essential, the new tools from Google Analytics will help you perfect, tailor and manage your social media campaigns, helping you make the most your time.

Install, sign in and start measuring your Google Analytics today.

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