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Digital marketing offers greater opportunities for businesses over the next year than more traditional channels, according to a new report.
When asked to identify which three marketing channels offer the greatest opportunities, half of brands (50%) mentioned social media followed by email (43%) and websites (35%).In fact the top 10 most cited channels are all online, with the most popular offline channel being direct mail at 8%....
We all need to acquire new customers to make our products and businesses work. Whether there are a few users paying big bucks or thousands visiting your platform for free, how you get and retain customers is what is important. But ask yourself: are you really ready for more customers? Is your team set up to handle an influx of users? What’s your promotion strategy – inbound marketing or traditional PR? This extensive guide will walk you through what user acquisition is and how to execute a plan....
Did you know that a recent study showed that almost half (44 percent) of moms have gone on to make a purchase after a friend posted a recommendation or liked a product on a social media site? We’ve been here before, of course (many times), but it bears repeating – moms and social media make a great mix, and if these socially savvy ladies are a demographic fit for your business then you should absolutely be engaging with them – frequently – within your marketing campaigns. You need more proof? Moms love to share information about products. Your products. More than nine in ten (92 percent) pass along information about deals or finds to others, and 78 percent of moms follow brands on social media to get coupons and discounts (compared to 55 percent of other folk). They’re mobile, too – 89 percent of moms use their smartphone to check social media on the move....
Today, the entire business community is aware of the fact that social media marketing (SMM) is a hugely rewarding way to retain existing customers.... Social Media has remarkably altered the way people connect, interact, and share information. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are the most prominent sites where social interactions constantly take place. SMM may be defined as a method to profitably use social media to build relationships, obtain repeat business, and attract to convert prospects through friends sharing with friends. In short, SMM is word-of-mouth powered publicity leading to enlargement of customer-base. SMM means connecting with customers and prospects where they hang out online and actively participate in conversations about the topics most interesting to them. Remember, there are already ongoing conversations between your customers and prospects and it is up to you to take advantage. As a rule, people like doing business with people they know and transact business with people they trust. Though prospects are available aplenty, successfully connecting with them calls for a well-conceived and meticulously executed strategy....
...Tressie Lieberman, director of social and digital for Taco Bell, says the brand has been "blown away" by the response it has gotten on Snapchat. Taco Bell is using the app to reintroduce the Beefy Crunch Burrito. "People are obsessed with Beefy Crunch Burrito so Snapchat seemed like the right platform to make the announcement," she says. "Sharing that story on Snapchat is a fun way to connect with the fans that we are thrilled to have. It’s all about treating them like personal friends and not consumers."
Taco Bell is one of the few marketers to embrace Snapchat, a mobile platform in which pics self-destruct within 10 seconds....
Investing time and money on social media is necessary for all types of businesses nowadays. Here are nine examples of small businesses using social media for branding. Social media is the new way for the word to spread: from product recommendations to advice on what to do, where to go, and what to do. From little conversations that mean nothing to meaningful revelations that could change lives, from stupid pictures to inspiring profiles – social media has it all. Customers have the final word now. News gets out faster. Other users and buyers are now the trusted sources. Social conversations are now the holy grail of business reputation management. Social media is social proof that materializes quickly. Small businesses are indeed tapping into the power of social media....
Excerpted from article on HubSpot: "Marketing Pilgrim published a great blog post by Michael Lieberman called "10 Ways Inbound Marketing Drives Results This Month."
The best inbound marketers do, indeed, play a good long game, but you can use inbound marketing tactics and strategies to move the needle immediately, too. So to add to Lieberman's already stellar list, here are ten more ways you can borrow from inbound marketing to see immediate positive changes in your marketing.
Michael Lieberman's 10 Ways for Inbound Marketing to Drive Results This Month [http://bit.ly/10cQwj9 ] To catch you up to speed, here's an abbreviated version of Lieberman's recommendations. - Make sure your website has the right messaging to help visitors pass the blink test. - Add visual calls-to-action to your site. - Add offers to your website that appeal to visitors and leads in all stages of the funnel. - Start blogging, and strive for a frequency of three to four times a week. - Share your blog content with social media followers. - Share educational content with relevant LinkedIn Groups. - Create dedicated, conversion-optimized landing pages. - Nurture leads with campaigns that bring them further down the funnel. - Share educational content on sites your target audience frequents. - Track and test all of your activities so you can get a more accurate gauge of what's working.
10 More Ways Inbound Marketing Drives Results This Month (by Hubspot) 1) A/B Test Elements of Your Email Marketing Campaigns; 2) Implement a List Re-Engagement Campaign; 3) Identify a Long-Tail Keyword Phrase With High Search Volume; 4) Newsjack; 5) Invest in a Social Media Ad Campaign; 6) Build a Free Tool; 7) Respond to HARO; 8) Start Using Tracking Tokens; 9) Create a Blog Subscription Landing Page; 10) Create Social Media Visual Content."
Each way mentioned by Hubspot is analyzed with more information. Read full article here: http://blog.hubspot.com/get-instant-results-with-inbound-marketing
In addition, check out also full article on Marketing Pilgrims: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2013/03/10-ways-inbound-marketing-drives-results-this-month.html
Via Giuseppe Mauriello
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No longer marketing’s shiny new object, social media has become an indispensable tool to achieve key business goals since prospects and customers spend at least one out of five online minutes using these platforms. This makes social media too big to ignore. The challenge is leveraging the power of social media to achieve your organization’s key objectives in a measurable way. “Whether you work for a big business or small one, one thing is clear from this research. Social media marketing is here to stay.” – Mike Stelzner, Founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner Social Media Examiner’s 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, a survey of a cross section of businesses using social media as part of their marketing mix, highlights nine benefits of social media marketing....
...As you see, the deeper one looks into permission marketing basics, the more it becomes obvious that social offers a lot of room for deviation from these. Could it be that, on the one hand, following someone on Facebook means giving them a permission to talk to you, but, on the other hand, could this be just like subscribing to a TV channel with interrupting ads? Why social is NOT ALWAYS permission marketing Now, one important remark: permission marketing is gradual in nature.You approach a prospect step by step, getting permission after permission, until you are allowed to actually sell stuff to them. A good analogy would be a person attempting to sell something in the street. If you just stop a passerby and tell them “buy a toaster from me”, they never will. However, if you ask “would you care for a free toast?” they might say yes, and then you could start pitching the toaster at some point....
The web has made media a complicated, jargon-filled world. Marketers need a way to simplify it.... ... In the past short while, we have seen a rise in new ways for advertisers to connect with consumers like never before. We're also seeing an increasing amount of media budgets shifting from traditional channels to digital advertising. You can't throw a marketer down a flight of stairs these days without hearing terms like real-time bidding, big data, retargeting and native advertising tumbling off of his tongue. It's beginning to make social media, mobile marketing and plain-old digital advertising seem somewhat antiquated. So, where do you, the business leader, place those ad dollars? Do you spend them with the latest and greatest shiny object? Do you stick to your traditional guns? Do you sprinkle them around in the hopes of hitting the jackpot on the advertising table of roulette? What we need is a framework that helps us transcend the many different ways that consumers are connecting with brands and lets us see the bigger picture....
How Does Social Media Impact Shopping? Did you know that 81 percent of shoppers say that posts from their friends on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook directly impacted their purchasing decisions? Moreover, 30 percent of social media shoppers respond better to brand offers when they have been reposted by a friend, and almost two-in-five moms (38 percent) are more likely to purchase from brands they “Like” on Facebook than other women. Social media has revolutionised many industries, and it’s greatest impact has perhaps been on the world of online commerce. There’s still room for improvement, however, with competitive pricing, the ability to purchase online and delivery speed cited as the most important factors that determine a customer’s decision to purchase, with advice received via social media sites impacting just 18 percent of transactions....
Don’t Ignore Social as a Way to Connect... According to a May 2012 survey by Constant Contact, over three-quarters of small businesses agree on their primary goal: attracting new customers. Unfortunately, a more troubling statistic shows that many small business owners are missing out on a vital opportunity. According to a recent eMarketer post, only 32 percent of small business owners think social media marketing is an effective tool in today’s digital bazaar. This perception needs to change. For many small business owners, social media is still largely an unknown quantity. Here are a few basic reasons that businesses of every size should invest their marketing resources in social media. Five reasons social media marketing is important...
It is very easy to confuse social media and social business. The graphic in this post, created by my colleague David Armano, is a great illustration of the differences between a social brand (for the purposes of this post, this is synonymous with social media) and social business. At a very high level, a social brand is what we all do from a communications perspective to include marketing, public relations, customer support and so on. So what is a social business strategy? It helps evolve the thinking and preparedness of an organization by bridging internal and external social initiatives, which results in a more collaborative company and shared value for all stakeholders (customers, partners, employees). If you study the above graphic, a social business is very much focused on the internal dynamics of a company, from training and governance to knowledge sharing and culture. Social media policies and employee engagement also play a pivotal role in shaping a social business. A social business strategy can almost be considered an enabler, because if you have your internal process and structures sorted out, it is much easier to scale your social media initiatives externally. Whether it is launching a global Facebook page or empowering employees to engage in social media, having a solid social business plan will help minimize mistakes. As a marketing guy by trade, I will try to communicate the value of how a better social business strategy enables a better social brand....
Here's the thing. Search works, but only if, as a brand, you know what it's worth to you. Too often brands allow outside influences (competitors, corporate vanity of presence, top-line revenue) to shape their buying strategy. Just as damaging is taking what eBay has published as anything more than one unique company taking a curious public position around corporate buying choices. It's not dissimilar from GM's declaration of Facebook failing it. Brands need to understand what search is worth to them. Accepting this study as gospel is no more palatable than accepting the long-standing Google view that if it's delivering, you should just keep writing checks. There's a proper brand point of investment in search for any company, just like any other media channel....
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It would be interesting to gather data at the end of 2014 to see how closely the prediction matched reality....
Is the socialization of life enforcing herd instinct ?
Digitial Marketing simply cannot be ignore any longer!