Making a Big Impression – Marvelous Marketing Methods

twitter-birds-flight

Promoting and marketing your brand well is important because you need to make sure you attract interest. And it’s important that you come up with unique and original forms of marketing. You have to understand that it’s not all about digital. This is not the be all and end all. Yes, digital marketing is hugely important, and you can’t very well do without it, but don’t put all your eggs in that virtual basket.

Think about all the different formats of promoting your company effectively. You have to do as much as you can to create a big impression. Wowing people and making them take note of your company is so crucial. You have to stand out these days, and really make a great impression. Here are some of the great ideas you can use that will help you with that.

Tangible Marketing

It’s a good idea to have some form of tangible marketing. This is even more important these days because we live in such a digital world. So you need to provide people with something tangible that they can touch and feel. It makes them feel more comfortable and helps cement your brand in their mind. So, how can you do this? Well, you need to look at what is involved in tangible marketing. Two of the best examples of this are business cards and flyers. Let’s consider flyers, and whether they still have a place. Well, the short answer is yes. Handing someone a flyer with information is more likely to illicit a response, and stay in the memory, than flicking through an advert. If you decide to create a flyer for your business you can market to people offline as well as online. Business cards are similarly effective. They give a unique role and professional perspective. And they can increase sales by up to around 2.5%!

Go Mobile

The future these days lies in mobile technology. If your company isn’t scaled down for mobile use yet, you need to rectify this. So many people use mobile and cellular devices every day, and they will be using these to access your business. 80% of Internet users own and use a smartphone as their primary web surfing tool. That’s why it’s important to make sure your company embraces this, and you make full use of mobile marketing. Now, there are a few things you can do to achieve this. For one thing, you need to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. It’s also worth developing a business app that users can download. That way you’re going to be able to connect and interact with users no matter where they are in the world. Going mobile is hugely important, and represents the future of business marketing.

Hashtag

You need to make your marketing suitable for modern Millennials. They represent the future of business and make up one of your most important demographics. Yes, all types of marketing are important here, but you need to connect with them on their wavelength. And what do Millennials love more than anything? Social media. That’s why you have to adopt and embrace the hashtag as much as you possibly can. It’s important to make sure you Tweet a lot about the business and that you make a hashtag a major part of the marketing strategy. It might surprise you to learn just how effective this can be for you as a business owner.

Making a big impression with your business marketing and advertising is so important. And that’s why you need to sometimes think outside the box with the things you say and do and the way you market yourself.

9 Ways to Measure Your Branding

Group of Multiethnic Busy People Working in an Office

Question: How do you measure whether your branding efforts are working or not? What do you look for?

Using Fresh Web Explorer

“I measure our branding efforts explicitly with Fresh Web Explorer. I use it to track every mention of our brand and branded terms across the Web, including tweets, comments, forums, blogs, etc. It helps me discover conversations I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed, and it enables me to keep a pulse on the broader reach of our marketing campaigns.”

MATT EHRLICHMAN 
Porch

Seeing Strangers Recognize Your Logo

“Branding is an important part in marketing because it means you’ve made a personal connection with your audience and inspired some level of longevity for your brand. It’s not just about a number, but rather the feeling you invoke in your target audience. They say that if you capture their hearts, you have them forever. You know this when strangers recognize your logo or company during conversation.”

ANDY KARUZA 
SpotSurvey

 Using Google Analytics

“We use Google Analytics to check our branded keywords and how they grow weekly, monthly, etc. It’s a good way to measure branding efforts to see how many times people are typing your brand into the search engine.”

PABLO PALATNIK 
ShadesDaddy.com

Being Recognized

“It sounds simple, but the best way of knowing if your branding efforts are working is to ask someone to say (or spell) the name of your company. If fellow business colleagues, industry insiders or consumers can say or spell your company name correctly, then half of your battle is already won. Recognition is key to recall efforts.”

KIM KAUPE 
ZinePak

Talking to People

“If people are likely to get on the phone with you when you reach out — or better yet, if they are coming to you — then your branding efforts are working. We’ve seen a huge change in the last year of businesses coming to us instead of us reaching out because of the articles we’ve published that build credibility for our brand. “

KELSEY MEYER 
Influence & Co.

Asking for Feedback

 

“We directly ask our potential business partners and customer leads how they heard about us. I’m always asking for feedback on our creative work like mailers and infographics in every business-related meeting. It helps me to keep thinking about how to improve and open the conversation to learn what branding efforts other businesses are pursuing. “

PHIL LABOON 
Eyeflow Internet Marketing

 Checking Your Conversion Rates

“If your conversion rates have increased, it can mean that the same visitors who have never purchased before are now excited to get to know your product or service. Branding helps soft sell to potential customers who weren’t ready to make a purchase initially but might give your business a chance after repeated exposure. If your conversion rates go up, your branding efforts are not in vain.”

DANNY WONG
Blank Label

Tracking Leads

“We keep a very close eye on our metrics — particularly lead gen. If our subscribers, opt-ins and sales are increasing, we know that we’re doing a good job promoting our brand. We are particularly interested in tracking referrals from clients because we are intensely focused on providing excellent customer service. If our clients are referring friends, we know that we’re doing a great job.”

PATRICK CONLEY 
Automation Heroes

Seeing Company Growth

“We help our clients assess branding efforts through seeing increased leads, higher lead conversion rates, faster close rates, higher paying customers and overall company growth. If you aren’t hitting all four cylinders, get some outside expertise to help you!”

RAOUL DAVIS 
Ascendant Group

WHY IS INTEGRATED MARKETING SO IMPORTANT?

Integrated_Advertising

In spite of the internet’s popularity, which really goes without saying you would think, there are still businesses relying on traditional media exclusively for marketing. At the same time, most businesses are using digital marketing in some way, but treat it like a separate entity.

No matter which medium is being used, it’s important to use both offline and online channels and create an integrated marketing campaign. Combining both mediums can increase the results of a marketing campaign for all kinds of businesses from startups, small businesses, to established companies.

How Prospects Follow Up With Businesses

There are several reasons why going with an integrated approach is so important. Prospects that come across ads through offline mediums such as magazines, newspapers, radio and TV often turn to the Internet to find more information about a business. This is especially the case for companies that favor branding campaigns more than direct response campaigns.

Surprisingly, the same thing applies to Internet businesses. Prospects try to see if an Internet business can be found offline, have phone numbers they can call, and have a real office location. This is to ensure that the business they are about to deal with isn’t some fly-by-night scammer that’s only interested in taking their money. This is one of the key reasons why it’s important to have a presence in both mediums.

Where Prospects Spend Their Time Looking Online

To be specific, people use the Internet to look up the reputation and reviews of businesses they’ve come across offline. Today, there are a large number of platforms to find information about businesses. There are search engines, review sites, social media sites, and community sites that can all be used to determine if it’s worth doing dealing with a business.

These platforms allow businesses to appear where consumers are searching after they’ve been exposed to their offline marketing, but only if they jump on that opportunity. One of the best ways to integrate offline and online is to build a SEO campaign. Your business will show up in related search terms about your brand, products and services. This puts you in control of your reputation and allows you to stay competitive in your industry.Digital Marketing Opens Your Business Up to a Bigger Audience and Increases Sales

An integrated advertising effort can really open up your business to a bigger audience as well. A large portion of your market will spend more of their time online, so investing in online ads can only extend your reach. In fact, many businesses find online campaigns to be more cost effective if not just as effective than offline campaigns.

Using display advertising and retargeting via pay per click can help maximize the effectiveness of your offline campaigns. It will help continue the conversation from your offline efforts, exposing consumers to more of your marketing. This increases conversions and your ROI because consumers tend to go with businesses they are more familiar with, and also because consumers are more likely to buy after multiple engagements.

The Integrated Approach Is Ideal When Gaining Momentum Is the Goal

Businesses that are trying to create buzz about their business or any kind of viral campaign need to go with an integrated approach. In one example, the Athens tourism board used offline info points to get locals to share their viewpoint of their city while also getting tourists to spent time with locals. The whole case study can be read here.

This was followed up by an online social media campaign where local submitted photos of events, special locations and the architecture that could be found in Athens. This user generated content turned viral and soon thousands of submissions were being sent in. The result was user generated content being used to create buzz and market tourism for Athens.

Conclusion

Going with an integrated approach is necessary to stay competitive in today’s market. Both mediums complement each other in many ways. Whether you’re a digital agency or a business that strictly uses traditional media, it is worth the effort and investment in building a campaign that combines and takes advantage of both mediums.

Clint Arthur Talks Unique Positioning and Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur-On-Fire-1920x1080

What does it take to be an Entrepreneur? Join us as Clint shares his Entrepreneurial mindset and an inside glance at his journey to becoming a successful Entrepreneur.

Clint is the only mentor in the world who helps Authors, Speakers, Coaches & Entrepreneurs create Celebrity and Unique Positioning using Local TV News & Talk Show interviews. His students — he calls them Magic Messengers — have booked more than 1,000 appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates across America, and on major TV shows including the Daily Buzz, Good Morning America, and the Today Show.

Success Quote

  • ‘Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.’ – George S. Pattonclick to tweet!

Business Failure

  • Clint spent Y2K driving a cab, then sobbing on his ratty, rented boat in the LA harbor. Fire Nation, sometimes you have to get HUNGRY and be SICK of losing before you can truly win!

Entrepreneurial AH-HA Moment

  • Clint was spending a fortune on his publicist to get TV appearances, until one question from his wife changed it all.

Current Business

  • Clint could not be more excited about his ‘Magic Messengers’ and the success they are having!

Small Business Resource

  • Amazon Prime

Best Business Book

button (1)

Interview Links

  • Guaranteed Celebrity: Celebrity Launchpad is a super-fun, super-exciting, 100% GUARANTEED life-changing 90-day transformation experience

rsz_2star_fullReady to launch YOUR Podcast? Sign up for our free weekly Podcast Workshop @ PodcastersParadise.com

How to Eliminate the Guesswork Behind Building An Audience

JohnLeeDumas

What does it take to be an Entrepreneur? Join us as Stephen shares his Entrepreneurial mindset and an inside glance at his journey to becoming a successful Entrepreneur.

Stephen is a Best-selling author and digital marketing expert who helps entrepreneurs eliminate the guesswork behind building an audience, generating leads, and converting sales in a complex digital world.

Sponsors

  • eVoice: The business phone system of choice for entrepreneurs. Make more money and grow your business with eVoice. Use offer code FIRE for $5 off every month FOREVER!

Success Quote

  • ‘Fear and procrastination are the enemies of success.’ – Unknown click to tweet!

Business Failure

  • Stephen was 28 year old, with millions of dollars, living the life in San Fran during the dot com boom. Then… POP! …The bubble burst, and he was left with NOTHING. Listen to the first step he took towards salvation.

Entrepreneurial AH-HA Moment

  • Perception is reality. Stephen kept convincing himself of his ‘shortcomings’. When he changed his mindset, his perception did an ABRUPT 180!

Current Business

  • Predictive ROI is the only company in the world that guarantees YOUR return on investment, or 100% of your $$ back! How can Stephen be so sure? Listen close and you’ll find out!

Small Business Resource

  • Google Docs: Create and share your work online and access your documents from anywhere. Manage documents, spreadsheets, presentations, surveys, and more

Best Business Book

button (1)

Interview Links

  • Predictive ROI: Founded on the principle that predictable results and guaranteed return on investment comes from proven practices, Predictive ROI offers an uncommon approach to digital marketing.

rsz_2star_fullReady to launch YOUR Podcast? Sign up for our free weekly Podcast Workshop @ PodcastersParadise.com

It Is Critical To Know The Cost Of Customer Acquisition

Pritchard-player-wide

We discuss the critical importance for every entrepreneur to understand the cost of customer acquisition and the return per customer. lt is amazing how many established business owners do not know these essential details. We discuss the how, when and why; the G2 crowd rankings of social media management products; Instagram grabs another hundred million dollars from traditional media; Staples and RadioShack to close the newly 1500 stores due to online competition; Apple versus Samsung… The next product could be the decider. But we also discuss how to address an increasingly multicultural business landscape, not only in America but across the world. We also have are extremely popular email segment where we address the issues that concern business no matter where they are in the world. We interview the amazing Robert Stock, the Founder, Co-Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the Robert Graham Empire has disrupted the way men and women dress for the last couple of decades. We discuss what is important in becoming successful.

3 Reasons Your Target Audience Doesn’t Care About Your Business

target audience

We’ve all heard the story: An expansion-happy CEO mercilessly destroys a promising startup equipped with a steady growth trajectory and a roster of top-tier clients, all within a year of his ascension to the throne.

When you’re in charge of a company’s growth and marketing strategy, it’s tempting to chase the numbers by drastically widening your marketing reach. But if you want to grow and succeed in an industry, you can’t take a “fire hose” approach to marketing.

If your company is stuck in a growth slump (or veering off course), you might be overshooting your target audience. Here are three reasons your marketing efforts aren’t making a connection.

You’re Targeting the Masses

I recently consulted for a healthcare company that was struggling to close leads despite having a great product. After reviewing its marketing presentation, the problem practically jumped off the page: Its target customer was completely ambiguous. After we settled on a single audience, the company had a clear value proposition and marketing approach that more narrowly targeted its specific audience.

You might think you need to stretch every dollar as far as possible to get the maximum ROI on your marketing spend, but aiming for a general audience is a waste of money. It dilutes your message, your marketing, and your strategy.

Instead, focus on a highly targeted audience to create a relevant, authentic connection with potential customers, and use your marketing budget efficiently.

You’re Confusing Your Audience

I’ve sat through countless campaign presentations. All too often, I walk out of a highly technical 30-minute presentation and think, “I have no idea what this company does.”

Just because you’re familiar with the ins and outs of your product or service doesn’t mean your audience understands it. Your value proposition should never become a guessing game.

Customers, investors, and the market really only care about two things: the problem your product solves and why it’s better than any other solution out there. If you can’t answer those questions in layman’s terms, your audience will go elsewhere.

You’re Not Providing a Call to Action

You may have a narrowly targeted audience, stellar creative, and perfect messaging, but if you don’t offer actionable takeaways for your audience, you’re missing a critical engagement opportunity.

Whether you want your audience to make a purchase, learn more, or enter a contest, your instructions need to be clear. Never put out a message that doesn’t communicate a desired outcome to your potential customers.

Raise Some Eyebrows

You’ll have a better chance of connecting with your audience if you avoid these mistakes. But focusing solely on the right customers won’t generate the cutting-edge marketing that draws people in by the millions. Here are four marketing tactics you should use to elevate your message:

Nail down your medium. Don’t assume a one-size-fits-all strategy will work for your startup. You need to understand what works for your industry and what fits your goals. A fashion entrepreneur may succeed in an ancillary New York Fashion Week event and post her line to Pinterest. But a B2B startup may be better off focusing on thought leadership to land a speaking engagement. Research the best medium for conveying your message, and get your story out as quickly as possible.

Know your customers’ habits. When you know your audience’s habits, it’s easier to meet them where they are. Find out where your target customers congregate to execute perfectly. For example, I market to entrepreneurs. I know they’re on the lookout for new opportunities, and they consume information almost exclusively through their mobile devices. So I focus on capturing relevant headlines on Twitter and aligning with organizations that curate people I want to talk to. I may only have a second to get their attention, so I focus on concise, attention-grabbing tweets and speaking opportunities at popular events.

Consider your costs. Spend your hard-earned money on customers who understand your message and are more likely to use it and become product evangelists. However, cost doesn’t always mean dollars. It includes time and effort as well. The barrier to entry on social media may be low in dollars, but think about whether you have the necessary bandwidth to manage, grow, and interact with your following.

Scale your marketing. There is no definite answer for how much you should spend on marketing, but according to Bloomberg, companies should start by spending about 5 percent of their revenue on marketing and adjust as they grow.

No matter how wonderful your product is, you can’t be everything to everyone. And when you try to market it that way, it weakens your message and pushes your audience away. Concentrate your efforts on sending out the perfect message for the right audience in the best place, and your marketing dollars will work harder. Pick your most relevant segment, and let your new brand advocates do the rest for you.

Allison Conkright Engel leads global marketing and operations for the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs. Prior to Dell, Allison worked for various startups, leading their Southwest expansion efforts. She has more than 15 years of experience in media and marketing and has worked for several iconic brands. Connect with Allison on Twitter.

Digital Marketing Strategies for Startups

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image19220483

Many startups end up spending more money than necessary.

Which is crazy because a company can be launched for much less than expected.

The key is to use a marketing strategy that is innovative, ROI focused, and customer-centric rather than one that relies on branding and traditional mass media. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through digital marketing.

The Case for Going Digital

Digital marketing is a great alternative to traditional media. Traditional media often requires spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars on radio, TV and billboards. In comparison, the Internet allows advertisers to test on a small scale, easily control costs and market to targeted prospects. That’s not to say that traditional media outlets are not effective. It’s just not viable for startups with small budgets.

There are many different ways to market online. The list includes social media, paid advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, and more. Entrepreneurs can use these platforms in innovative ways in order to acquire customers even with small budgets.

For example, using integrated marketing can maximize the results of more than one advertising/marketing platform. Another example is identifying cost effective ways to get the word out about your company

Building an Audience for Social Media Platforms and Blogs

One way that new companies can establish themselves is through social media engagement and blogging. Using social media and blogs is a great way to build an audience, create relationships and interact with the target market. Many companies are using content marketing and leveraging relationships to build followers and readers for their social media platforms and blogs.

Creating high quality content and marketing it works really well because people respond to information that is relevant to them. In many cases, readers follow up with the content creator in order to subscribe and get additional content. This is a long term strategy that can take as long as one year before a business starts to see significant growth. But after the year mark, many businesses go on to establish brand awareness and immense market presence.

The Importance of Using Search and Integrating Different Strategies

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another way to acquire new leads and customers. It is a strategy that requires you to optimize various factors on and off your website to get your website to rank in the search results. People use the search engines to do everything from learning new information, comparing different products/services to researching businesses. Getting your website to rank in the top results for search terms related to your company will help you reach targeted prospects while also branding your business.

The perfect example of integrating different marketing strategies is using both content marketing and SEO together. A content marketing campaign will help build an audience for your blog and social media platforms while also helping you acquire backlinks. Additionally, backlinks are one of the biggest contributing factors to ranking well in the search engines. The visitors that result from the search engine rankings can be directed to impactful content which is likely to be shared.

Affordable Paid Advertising Platforms

If you have a modest budget to work with, it might be a good idea to use pay per click (PPC) advertising. This is an advertising platform that is similar to offline display advertising. It will display small ads in the search engines, and you only incur costs when somebody clicks on your ad. The best feature about this advertising method is that your ad only shows up when somebody searches for search terms you’ve bid for.

Retargeting can be used in addition to pay per click advertising. This is a type of display advertising where your ad is shown to visitors across a network of websites. When a visitor comes to your website, they are tagged with a browser cookie. Usually, once a visitor leaves, you lose the chance to market to them. But with retargeting, your message will be displayed across a network of sites, allowing you to follow up with them.

An innovative strategy that can be used to make this advertising more effective is to combine it with email marketing. By leveraging your existing email list, you can refer readers to one of your pages that will tag them with the cookie. This will ensure that your readers come across your ad while they are surfing other websites.

The lesson here is that there are many different ways for a startup entrepreneur to grow. Online channels can often enhance or replace a function of a business.

For instance, a social media account can be used as a public relations tool. The result is that there are no big expenses used to hire a public relations department or company. It’s really all about exploring different marketing channels and being innovative with them.

20: Caryn Tomer Talks How Startups Can Gain Exposure & Buzz

background test - Copy

Download | Subscribe
Caryn is Techli’s Editor-in-Chief. She is a writer who loves sharing stories of innovation, no matter the location. She has her masters in mass communication from SIUE and has been in corporate marketing for 6+ years, working on campaigns for all kinds of products. When she’s not writing, you can find her hitting the trail as an avid runner and general sports enthusiast.

12: Monica Selby Tells Startups How To Get PR

background test - Copy

Download | Subscribe

Monica Selby is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Nibletz Media, Inc. She is a Mississippi native and got her start in the Memphis startup scene. A proud graduate of Ole Miss, Monica’s writing as been featured in publications like Under30CEO, Young Entrepreneur, and Fast Company. Now, as editor-in-chief, she is passionate about the potential of startups outside Silicon Valley. When she’s not working or parenting, you can find her with a book and a glass of wine (or two).

Episode 8: Mark Schaefer Expounds On How To Leverage Social In Gaining Startup Traction

background test - Copy

Download | Subscribe

Mark Schaefer is a globally-recognized blogger, speaker, educator, business consultant, and author who blogs at {grow} – one of the top marketing blogs in the world. He teaches graduate marketing classes at Rutgers University and has written three best-selling books including The Tao of Twitter (the best-selling book on Twitter in the world) and Return On Influence,which was named one of the top business titles of the year by the American Library Association.

Episode 7: Jon Ferrara Explains Building Relationships As An Entrepreneur PT2

background test - Copy

Download | Subscribe

Part 2 of our interview with Jon Ferrara, CEO of Nimble, and successful entrepreneur best known for being of GoldMine Software Corp, one of the early pioneers in the Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software categories for Small to Medium sized Businesses (SMBs).

In this episode, we really dive into growing your company, disruption, growth hacking and leveraging social networking to determine influencers and connect with them. Towards the end we also talk about building startup teams and how to leverage relationship building to find the right investors for your startup.

Jon tells great stories about how he has grown multiple companies, gain investors and clients that are truly inspiring. Beyond just anacedotes, he shares how to build systems which enable entrepreneurs to organize and deal with the pressure of owning a business.

Key advice to entrepreneurs

“Follow up and follow through. Not following up is the biggest cause of failure in business”. Jon Ferrara

How To Learn More About Jon

Twitter: @Jon_Ferrara

Episode 6: Jon Ferrara Explains How To Build Your Startup Without Marketing Capital (Part 1)

background test - Copy

Download | Subscribe

Jon Ferrara is an American entrepreneur and the founder of Nimble LLC, his most recent venture. Ferrara is best known as the co-founder of GoldMine Software Corp, one of the early pioneers in the Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software categories for Small to Medium sized Businesses (SMBs).

Our conversation with Jon covered so much great insight into success we turned decided to create two episodes. In part one, he talks about:

  • Growing your startup without marketing capital
  • Importance of relationship building
  • Gaining income and investment capital
  • Long term sales logic
  • What is social selling

Importance of relationship building

Jon had lots of great quotes but one that epitomized importance of social selling and relationship building came from Mae West: “Out of sight is out of mind, and out of mind is out of money honey!”

Insight into the startup journey

Just like so many entrepreneurs Jon got frustrated with sales options in his early days, decided to jump ship and get started on his own with Goldmine which revolutionized the CRM concept. Built, grew, sold and is now on to doing the same with Nimble.

John and Ledge hear this story in every interview. The urge to start is so overwhelming that we just can’t help chasing down that idea and starting a company! Leave us a comment if you’ve ever felt that way and followed it. If you haven’t followed the feeling, why not?

What is social selling?

Jon explains the growth of the internet and its use in sales and business development over the past 20 years, with amazing insight into how social selling has become the new way to grow companies, build relationships and achieve success as an entrepreneur. We also discuss how social media is becoming common place and will likely begin to fade into a standard business practice from today’s “hype”.

How to get in touch

Make sure you follow Jon on Twitter and check out Nimble, a fantastic platform that enables you to manage all your social platforms in one place from a business perspective.