ClearTech Web Design and Internet Marketing

Guide to Social Media Marketing - Definitions

2009-08-26T12:50:00.006-05:00

Social Media Marketing is all the buzz right now. But what is it and how can you use it? We're not going to pretend that this subject can be covered in a single blog post but we'll start the discussion by actually defining the terms and then later we'll follow up with further posts to get into the details.

Social Media Marketing Definition

Social - marked by friendly relations or companionship. Pertaining to a group or community. Offering opportunity for interaction. Relating to the way in which people in groups behave and interact.

The derivation of the word is from Latin "socialis" meaning "companion".

Media - A channel of communication that serve can be used to carry an advertisers' messages and serve as the vital link between the seller of a product/service and the consumer. The various means of mass communication considered as a whole.

The derivation of the word is also from Latin, "medius", meaning "middle".

Marketing - 'Marketing' is everything a company does to acquire customers and maintain a relationship with them. This covers everything from identifying your target audience and developing & launching campaigns which will advertise, sell and deliver your products to them. This is preferably done creativity using catchy slogans, attractive packaging design, celebrity endorsements and general media exposure. While we're here, let's not forget the "small tasks" like writing thank-you letters to customers, playing golf with a prospective client, returning calls promptly and meeting up with a past client for coffee. All of this IS "Marketing".

The derivation of the word is from Old French "mercari", meaning "buy" which is from the word "merx" meaning "goods".

If we look at the roots of all these words and their definitions we start to get the picture.

Social Media Marketing - "Social Media Marketing" is therefore something like, "a form of Marketing which attempts to use and leverage the social bonds amongst people to influence & introduce others to your products, services, ideas, etc."

The "media" in this case, is the actual social networking platform-- Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, Blogs, etc.

This makes pretty good sense when you think about it and it might start giving you some ideas about how you're going to go "social". Immediate questions arise such as:

What "media" platform(s) might be the best vehicle for our company.
Why would people be interested in what we have to say?
Who would care & why would they care?
What do we need to do to get them to care?
What do they find interesting?
What can we do to attract & retain their interest?

Those are the starting questions which will inevitably lead into further questions.

Closing Thoughts
From my experience, people tend to form (real) groups around their own interests. Furthermore, the thin attention span of the audience you're dealing with today most easily flows towards the following:

points of "drama"
sources of entertainment
educational/helpful sources

With that in mind, how can you use social media marketing?

Interactive Marketing Programs

2009-08-24T12:52:00.007-05:00

A recent study by Forrester shows that 12% of the Advertising spend in the U.S. for 2009 was for interactive & digital advertising. And guess what? According to the report, by 2014 that figure will grow to 21% of all ad spending!

When most people think about Interactive Marketing programs, they tend to think in terms of "Search Engine Marketing" and they'd be 1/2 correct. Search Engine Marketing makes up about 1/2 of the entire spend and it is expected that it will be the biggest component through 2014.

Interesting study results to say the least. On the ground, we're seeing these trends every day. More and more companies wanting get in on the act. Everyone wants to get a piece of the online action. The desire to advertise and market a company's products and services on Net has grown from mild interest to fevered demand as more and more marketing dollars are shifting over to the Internet.

Take a look at the numbers:

Now more than ever it's important to consider where you're spending your marketing budget and whether you're getting the proper bang for your buck.

So, where are you advertising these days? How is your ROI? And what portion of your marketing budget is for Interactive Marketing Programs?

Marketing and PR - What's The Difference?

2005-03-15T18:00:00.000-05:00

Is there a difference between Marketing and PR? Many small firms have no ongoing PR effort but frequently spend large sums on marketing, which is often times less effetive than they had hoped. Let's take a look at these two subjects.

The Purpose of PR
The purpose of public relations is to fix in the mind of your prospective customers an idea about your company or business. It is to position your business in the mind of your prospects in some exact way. It's to get them to think of you in some particular light or manner or to keep them thinking a certain way or even to change the way they think. All this falls under the purvey of PR.

But we're a small business not some big firm. Why should we worry about PR you might say?

Well, today PR is even more vital for the small business than ever before. Increased competition, price wars and the global trading place as well as the Internet really coming of age. Every product or service is already being offered unless you are an inventor with something brand spanking new. Why should someone choose your firm?

To compound the problem, as Jack Trout said in his groundbreaking books on "Positioning", we live in an overcommunicated society. People are suffering from information overload.

Just reflect on average day: how many TV commercials, how many radio commercials, how many e-mails, phone calls, regular mail, solicitations, etc. does the average person receive in one day! Overload!

The problem becomes how do you get your message across and through.

Enter Positioning
Positioning is the concept of implanting your brand, your company firmly in the minds of your customers. Since minds are so stuffed with information it becomes important in choosing a unique position in the mind.

The mind works and understands things by comparing them to other things so in order to fix something in the mind it is often effective to fix a concept in relation to an already understood concept.

Let's take a look at some examples: Apple computers. What is the idea you have about Apple? A progressive technology company that delivers aesthetic high-tech products that are very cool? That's their position in relation to computers (an already understood concept) and that's effective PR.

Let's get another example: Volvo automobiles. What position does this carmaker have in your mind? Is it a position of safety? Exactly. Remember those car crash commercials? Their position is safety; the brand Volvo elicits the idea of safety -- they've positioned themselves within the concept of automobiles as the safest. That's effective PR.

Let's take another brand: Listerine. What you think? In the realm of mouthwash, Listerine is the one that kills germs? That's their position in the known territory of mouthwashes. That's effective PR.

So if that's PR and positioning what is marketing and how do these relate?

PR is a communication technique and its purpose is to communicate specific ideas to a specific public. The intention is to gain acceptance and a position of authority in the minds of your public. One of the key ideas in PR is to communicate an effecitve position.

Now, once the idea is firmly implanted, then effective promotion and marketing campaigns can flank that position and produce results far beyond what mere marketing and promotion can achieve. PR smooths the way for effective marketing. It has been said that, "PR puts the magnet on the fridge".

Many businesses who have been in business, delivering great products and excellent service over a long period of time have established for themselves good PR in their community almost incidentally. Their PR position really developed without an active PR campaign. Their PR was established by their persistence in their community over a very long period of time. Every community has such business mainstays. The question is, is it really necessary to take 20 years to develop this kind of PR? The answer is "no".

Why not proactively develop your own PR campaign and image? What position do you wish to occupy in the mind of your prospects? How does this position relate to your competitors? What idea distinguishes you from the others and which will communicate to your audience?

Remember the Cola commercials? Remember 7-Up's campaign -- the un-cola? That's positioning. Instead of going head-to-head with the leading cola companies, 7-Up established a unique position as the un-cola which gave them a distinct advantage and virtually no competition. This also made it easy for them to be memorable in the minds of their audience. They occupy a distinct position.

Create Your Own Positioning & PR Campaign
Start thinking about your own position and what it should be. Sort that out. And work to establish a very simple, concise image. The simpler the position the more memorable.

Once established promote that position. Take a zone and get that message out broadly and prior to any direct marketing. Get your idea firmly implanted into the minds of your audience. Try to use free channels to get your message out on: newspapers, press releases, blogs, etc. and get that message out.

Now you can move in with your marketing message since you already have a position in the minds of the audience you're trying to reach. You should have achieved some recognition already by a carefully crafted PR campaign. This makes promotion and marketing 10 times more effective.

Summary

PR comes before Marketing
PR starts the fire; promotion fans the flames.
Create a unique, memorable position for your company in the mind of your public.
Get that message out on all fronts: press releases, charity work, newspapers, third party endorsements, etc.
After that messages is in place, send out the promotion and marketing materials that flank that position.
Measure your results and survey your public as needed to correct and/or adjust your position over time.
Achieve in several years what would otherwise take 20 years to do without an active PR campaign.
Buy, read and use "Positioning: the Battle for Your Mind" and "The New Positioning" by Jack Trout.

Here's to your success!

It's Certain You Are Losing Business If...

2005-03-08T09:03:00.000-05:00

You go to a major search engine (see below) and type in a key phrase related to your product or service and you aren't there in plain sight. But what if your services are delivered only in a certain geographic area, like a state, county or city? Well go ahead and add that to your search criteria. Are you listed there? You're not. Well, I am afraid to tell you, but you are losing business like a sieve loses water.

How can I be so sure? Let's see what Mr. Nielson has to say...

Internet Users Turn to Search Engines for Online Shopping
NEW YORK — February 23, 2004 — Nielsen//NetRatings, the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, reports that 114.5 million or 39 percent of Americans used a search engine during January 2004.

The 114.5 million unique users, representing 76 percent of the active online U.S. population, each spent nearly forty minutes using search engines during the month.

Nielsen//NetRatings also reports the top five search destinations were Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN Search, AOL Search and Ask Jeeves during January 2004. Fifty-nine million users or 39 percent of active Internet users visited Google (See Table 1). Thirty percent or 46 million visitors used Yahoo! Search, while 45 million or 30 percent went to MSN Search. Rounding out the top five were AOL Search and Ask Jeeves with 23 million and 13 million unique users respectively.

“Search engines continue to be the primary tool people use to navigate the Web,” said Jason Levin, analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. “With the big search players having recently updated their search capabilities, Internet users should expect to find even better search results from the major search engines in the near future.” >> read the report.

So you see, there's a lot of searching going on. It's guaranteed that in almost a billion searches a day, someone is searching for your products and services. If they can't find you, they are undoubteldly finding someone else. Why shouldn't they find you? You've got a great service, right? Your products are worthy, aren't they?

Say Goodbye to Cold Calling and Cold Call Sales

2005-03-03T20:40:00.000-05:00

Everyone wants a thriving online business. It's simply one of the best business models out there. Picture this: Your website is actually functioning-- YES, I said functioning! It's generating leads, prospects and sales for your business daily.

Do You Really Love Cold Calling That Much?
I know, you may not think that it's possible to leave cold calling behind. Maybe it's not for your business. But if you've ever started getting heavy internet leads and traffic from your web site, you'll start rethinking cold calls fast... especially if you're the one doing it. Why? Because cold calls are hard and people calling in wanting your services is just so much easier.

If you've never gotten much from your website, don't worry, you're not alone. Most websites are designed -- and that's how they remain. They don't function but just sit out there in cyberspace like headstones at a cemetary.

"Here lies the XYZ Corporation... They had a Good Idea but Nobody Ever Knew"

Apparently the only purpose was to HAVE a website and that's what they got-- A great big 'HAVE' called "a website".

Well I guess if your into pyromania then setting fire to cash is interesting but for the rest of us, we probably had something else in mind.

There's a Change Going On
I know, people don't like change but it's happening whether you like it or not. I just spoke with a major telephone directory the other day... (you know those big yellow ones) and they confirmed this for me. There's a HUGE shift towards using the web to locate products and services. And I mean HUGE. If you don't believe this is happening, just ask yourself. Have you used the Internet to get information on a service you needed or product you desired in the last 30 days? Chances are you have and so have a lot of other people. So why not at least explore the option as it relates to your business?

Do Some Research Yourself
Do your homework. Find out. See any competitors out there, advertising on the Internet? Do a search on Google or Yahoo for your products or services. What might people type in to a seach engine? Go ahead, type that in and look at the results. How many results are there for that phrase you typed in? thousands? millions? Now you're getting some data.

The next thing to know is how many times people searched on that particular phrase or term.

Yes, there is a way to get that info and we have access to that. Want to know? I'll send you the info for free. Just ask.

Be Skeptical
Don't believe everything you read, even this. Just because it's written doesn't mean it's true. There are a lot of hucksters out there who'll promise you the moon. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. If someone promises you search engine placement for $49 bucks a month your RED LIGHTS should be going off like mad. If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it.

It takes some work, for sure.

We've done this for many clients and I can tell you that one for one, they are very surprised when the calls and emails start coming. They'll call and say, "Scott we made 3 more sales off the website today. I can't believe it. I should have done this years ago."

A Recent Wired Magazine Article Sums it Up:
"Conventional wisdom says 97 percent of Google searchers don't click past the first three pages (or 30 results). With about three-quarters of the active online population in America using search engines, according to Nielsen/NetRatings and 40 percent of shoppers choosing Google to locate stores and comparison shop, the difference between a high and low ranking can literally be the difference between a thriving online business and Chapter 11."
read more>> Wired News: Googling the Bottom Line

3 Rules for Marketing Success- Test Test Test

2005-02-25T19:11:00.000-05:00

I'd like to share some useful information from running a marketing and design firm as well as from being a high tech consultant.

Let's start off with a recent experience that punches home the importance of targetted marketing.

Everyone knows that marketing should be targetted. Everyone knows it. I have found that few actually will do the research neccessary to really take advantage of that marketing fact; those that do reap a far greater return on their investment (ROI).

With one of our recent clients we had thought that we had had our 'public' pretty well identified. The site was converting at a rate of about 5%, which is incredibly well as anyone with experience in web marketing will tell you. 1-3% is considered pretty darn good.

As most marketing firms do, we use a variety of ways to measure our client's site productiveness. For general information, we use several common web log analysis tools such as Awstats, Webalizer and Statomatic. These are what I would call, aggregate log analysis tools, in that they provide summary statistics in a generalized way.

When you get into attempting to tie a specific ad to a specific visitor to a specific action (eg. a web conversion) you're going to need better tracking than these log tools will provide.

We searched around and couldn't find exactly what we were looking at, so we decided to write our own custom tool that allowed us to track this information easily.

The results have been fantasitic and have allowed us to see patterns and trends that weren't otherwise obvious or available. What it has really done is made it easier to further qualify and IDENTIFY with greater precision, exactly who the target market is. I anticipate that as a result that our ROI will double but it's too early to tell. I will keep this updated.

The moral of the story is that one must continually look at identifying and qualifying your market. And when you think you have it pretty well identified, take a step back and see how you can analyze it a little closer. You have to get it down as precisely as possible.

For example if you were selling 'baseballs' you may have been targetting 'people who play baseball'. This may be producing results. Now, on further research you might find that this gets a little more precise and your top sales might be coming from perhaps 'baseball coaches'. So you re-tool your campaign around 'baseball coaches' and re-evalautate. Some time passes and you re-analyze. You may find now that your best conversions are coming from 'little league coaches' and so it goes.

This is a ridiculous example but the best I could do off the top of my head!

Again, test, measure and re-test again and then do it all again. This isn't going to happen over night and it will take some time but the results and success are well worth the effort!