4 Ways to Get Creative with Content Marketing

What is the absolute BEST way to get your website content seen? People consume content all over the internet in many different ways.  Think of various websites like Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, or Facebook.  The popularity of these platforms lies in the fact that people can choose how they consume information.  So, how can you make use of this when creating your own web content?  Here are four ways to get creative with your content marketing strategies and help encourage more website engagement from your viewers:

Video Blog with Transcript

Video blogs are exactly what they sound like… a video of you (or someone else) speaking on a topic; and they are becoming increasingly popular.  However, you should consider taking that video a step further by including a transcript of it on the same page.  By doing this, you will optimize both the written content as well as the video content for search engines.

Infographics

Many people love infographics, and for a good reason! They are incredibly easy to understand and can be reviewed quickly.  Infographics are nothing more than simple images that convey your message.  A Google Image search of the term “Infographic” will provide several hundreds of examples.  Best of all, with the right tool (like that provided by piktochart.com), creating a custom infographic can be easy.

Expert Interviews

Nothing gives you credibility like having a celebrity endorsement.  However, that is not always possible.  The next best thing is showcasing an individual’s expertise – whether that is someone within your company or outside of it.  Creating content using an expert interview is an excellent way to add credibility to your website.  You can even combine this concept with the video blog tip, above.

“A Day in the Life”….In Photos!

People love to see a story. Is your company having a business retreat soon?  If so, that could be an excellent opportunity to add a “human” element to your website and help your target audience connect with you.  Just a few pictures, each with a caption telling the story, can go a long way towards building rapport with your audience.

With so much content on the web, it is important that yours stands out among the crowd. Changing things up and throwing in something other than a blog or whitepaper every once in a while can make a world of difference for your business.

Do Catalogs Still Drive Sales?

The belief that print is dead is not only erroneous, it is a false mindset that can cost you customers. Catalogs and brochures remain very effective tools to reach customers and drive sales. Printed marketing materials need to be a component of a successful outreach campaign. Email and digital materials are easily dismissed with a click of a button, whereas print is tangible, vibrant, and imparts information in an effective manner. Catalogs make shopping a more interactive, tactile, and physical experience. Many customers enjoy a mix of print and digital information, and when making the buy decision, many tactile people would rather shop from a printed catalog.

Catalogs also make a perfect leave behind at the conclusion of a sales call; rather than state that you will email them material, you are able to put it in their hand during those vital moments when they are strongly engaged with you. Catalogs are also perfect for recurring customers with whom you want to keep in touch, by having your catalog on their desk, and making that visual impression, can help to keep your company, and your products, at the forefront of their mind. Printed materials that are vibrant, promote the company’s brand identity, and impart useful information will be an effective piece of any direct marketing campaign.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that your firm does not need printed materials, and that digital can meet all of your marketing needs. Catalogs continue to play an important part in driving sales and keeping repeat customers engaged in the sales process. Catalogs present your products and services in a straightforward, informative, and easily digested manner that is accessible to customers across many market niches. Make sure that your marketing campaigns contain all of the tools available.

The Color Of Your Mail Envelopes Can Effect Your Responses

How important is the color of the mail you are sending out to prospects? Consider that the envelope is the absolute first thing a person will see. Before they read the return address, before they open it and find out what it is, they will notice the color. On that one split second alone, their mind has now framed how they are going to frame the information. The person may have even decided if he is going to open it at all or toss it.

There is an entire field of study dedicated strictly to the responses people give to color. Color symbolism, for instance, studies the conditioned associations we make with color. This of course, is based greatly on where we are raised. Green, for example, is considered lucky in Ireland but unlucky in England.  Red is associated with danger in many places but not all.

Color Psychology shows the effects colors have on a person’s mood and behavior. Certainly a key piece of information when it comes to print and direct mail marketing!

So as opposed to the conditioned meanings we can give to colors, they also create a psychological response because of the way the wavelengths are received by our brains.  Red can create aggression, intensity and get the blood pumping. Green can relax and soothe.

If you absolutely want someone to open a piece of mail, a red envelop will do it.  On the other hand, it might also make them aggressive and potentially angry when they open it. They might feel the sense of urgency wasn’t worth it. So really, it comes down to figuring out what kind of reaction you want, what kind of mental state you want your prospect to be in when they receive your message.

It’s also important to make sure (and test) that it is not evoking the negative side of that emotion as described with Red. Yellow will bring up emotion and confidence, but can also evoke anxiety and fear.

Take some time to learn some basics about this concept and apply it to a split test. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn and apply from the results.

http://www.colour-affects.co.uk/how-it-works

https://www.fluttermail.com/colour-affects-email-response/

Using Effective Communications in your Marketing Efforts

Marketing communications is designed to help your company gain brand awareness and at the same time retain its existing customers. However, it is not always easy to communicate effectively especially if you have no experience in the marketing field. it is hard to know who to target, how and when to market and what strategies to use among more. So, what should you do to make the most out of your marketing communications?
Here is a glimpse of some of the communication strategies you can use to make your marketing efforts effective.
•    Keep the message simple and clear – Most companies have a deeper and complicated meaning as to why they do the things they do. But, that is not what people out there are interested in. Their only interest is what they can gain from the company and so, make sure your message is brief, simple, intriguing and clear for them to understand.
•    Know your audience – Successful marketing efforts begin with analyzing and knowing your audience. Different people have different needs and therefore, it is good that you do some research on the target audience before giving them any information. Sending information to the wrong audience will only use your money and effort.
•    Drop your corporate person hat – Remember, the people you are meeting out there are ordinary citizens and they will only listen to you if they feel they can relate well with you. So, use simple terms, understand their culture and try fit in to their day to day activities. From there, they will be interested in what you have to say.
•    Be confident – Nobody wants to listen to someone who is not sure of him or herself. When marketing, you are selling you company’s product and so, you have to convince your audience that you understand and believe in the product you are selling. Otherwise, you will just get frustrated since nobody will pay attention to you.

Successfully Tracking Your Mail Campaign

Direct mail advertisements are one of the most effective methods of advertisement. The main advantage stems from the fact that with direct mail marketing, the market targeted is one that is likely to convert rather than a general market.

Moreover, it is an inexpensive method as compared with other methods of advertising, it costs much less. The major advantage, however, must be the fact that you can track your mail campaign. Most businesses, after releasing an advertisement, always wonder whether it is effective and whether it reached the intended market. With direct mail, you can track the results to realize whether you had a successful mail campaign.

How to Successfully Track Your Mail Campaign

The methods to successfully track your mail campaign are as explained below:

a)        Send follow up emails.

When using a direct mail campaign to advertise, a single mail is not enough. Most times, adverts in an email will receive a glance then it will be ignored. However, after sending the first mail, send a second mail reminding the potential customer of the first mail, and then a third mail reminding him of the first two emails. This way, if your competitor sends an email after your first mail, your subsequent mail will remind the customer of your product.

b)       Ensure that the target market is likely to convert.

Each business aims to increase profits and reduce costs. Increasing your Return on Investment requires cost-effectiveness of your campaign, and this cost –effectiveness is achieved if more customers convert. Therefore, target a market that has shown interest in your product before, as they are likely to convert.

c)        Use an attractive and eye-catching headline.

The first letters that the target market’s eyes will land on is the heading of your email. An attractive and well-scripted heading will increase the curiosity of the customer, and he or she will end up reading through the email.

By increasing the cost-effectiveness of your direct mail campaign, you increase your ROI, and this is possible only if you successfully track your mail campaign.

Achieve Increased ROI With Direct Mail Marketing

With the ever-growing popularity of campaigns for social marketing, landing pages to gather leads and the use of mobile apps as marketing tools, smaller businesses may find using direct mail marketing to be viable option. With the ultimate goal of increasing traffic and leads, ensuring the optimal ROI is achieved means taking a tighter grip on the reigns of already small budgets for marketing. What may be deemed by some as an old-fashioned method for marketing may in fact be a cost-effective option.

Effectively Combine Digital Channels

While research has proved the ROI resulting from direct mail compared to the sole use of email marketing, the use of direct mail as a stand alone isn’t as effective. When combined with multiple channels, direct mail marketing can increase response rates and significantly lower the cost per acquisition when compared with paid search and internet displays. A study conducted in 2015 by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the CPA proved that direct mail marketing ranked third in performance at an average cost of $19. Moreover, when combined with all digital channels, it was proved to be seven times more effective.

Track Metric

While many businesses employ the use of multiple marketing channels to generate leads and bring about better awareness of their brand, direct mail marketing can still stand as a viable means of bringing substantial ROI. In order to determine the effectiveness of campaigns, it’s important to track the rate of response. This can be accomplished by using a call to action that can be used to properly monitor responses.

Growing a customer base is one of the main objectives of your business. Using digital marketing combined with direct mail marketing will not only increase the customer base but will increase sales if executed effectively.

Digital Marketing for 2017: Avoid These 3 Marketing Traps

According to Social Times, nearly 90 percent of companies rely on social media for all or part of their marketing. If you plan to use digital marketing in 2017 to promote your products or services, you should know that the internet is a powerful tool. If you use it well, you will receive great rewards. If you fall into one of the following traps, however, your results might not be what you expect.

Ignoring or Misusing Digital Data

When you market your business online, you will receive a ton of data that you can use to better align your marketing strategy with your audience. However, the sheer amount of information that you receive daily can be daunting, which may cause you to ignore important information or pay too much attention to data that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. The best strategy is to have one person handling all of your data and making informed decisions based on that data.

Too Many Irons in The Fire

If you have too many marketing strategies, you may stretch your marketing department thin. If you want to focus on digital marketing, make sure your resources are allocated properly. You may have to cut back on traditional marketing methods in order to free up the resources to launch an effective digital campaign.

Not Creating Enough Content

In digital marketing, content is vital. Blog posts, social media posts, press releases, web pages, and articles are all necessary to drive traffic to your website and promote your products. Don’t overlook the power of unique, fresh, and relevant content. It’s what drives a successful digital marketing strategy.

To make a marketing campaign successful, you must first identify what works and do it. However, you must also watch out for potential pitfalls and traps that can undermine your efforts.

How to Handle Complaints Through Social Media

If your business currently has a social media presence, you may have gone through the dreaded issue of having a customer post a complaint on the wall of your business page. This can be incredibly disheartening and make you wonder if it will cause you to develop a “bad reputation”, but the truth is that you can (and will) get through it with great success. In fact, it is how you handle this roadblock that will give you serious points in the eyes of prior and future customers.

 

The Basis of Truth

Your response to a complaint on your social media platform will depend on the validity of the person’s claim. Was it true that your company made a mistake, or was negligent in some way? Determining this first will allow you to form a quick plan and be as graceful and humble as possible.

If the claim is true, you should write a response within no more than a couple of hours. It only will look worse on your part if you do not have a ready answer, as it will appear that you are avoiding the individual and the topic. Discuss it in a public forum, such as right on the same post. Keep your statements brief, and ask for clarification. Then, offer a solution that will be in the best interest of the customer. Even if he or she chooses not to take you up on your offer, you will have the advantage of looking like a professional and compassionate representative of your company.

Rise Above and Beyond the Expectations

Many individuals who write about their negative experiences with a company on social media do not expect to hear back from said company within a short period of time, if at all. If you give him or her the benefit of the doubt, be as clear as possible, and stick to how you can help to resolve the issue, you are certain to make it right with the customer. Also, you will serve to maintain your company’s solid reputation.

Increase Your QR Code Scans With these 3 Tips

In the modern society, QR codes are essential marketing tools used by businesses. They make the aspect of mobile marketing efficient. It is a perfect way that necessitates the promoting of services and products to the clients. QR codes offer a direct link to the online sites of the firm. One aspect that makes them reliable for marketing is because they are applicable across the globe. Therefore, customers from every country can engage directly with the organization and view advertisements with ease at a lower cost. Therefore, it is advisable to incorporate QR codes as crucial parts of your marketing strategies. Below are essential tips that can help in increasing your QR code scans.

Offer Essential Guidelines Near the QR Code

Many businesses print plain QR codes on brochures and other materials without providing instructions on how to use them. Therefore, many customers do not know the need of those codes, and they just ignore them. It leads to low rates of QR code scans. If you want to increase your QR code scans, you must offer your customers helpful instructions on how to scan those codes on the printed materials.

Test the QR Codes

After incorporating the QR codes as a marketing tool for your business, you should test them to enhance efficiency before printing them on different materials. Testing is essential to ensure that they direct the customers to a mobile compatible website where they will be able to view different offers and advertisement of the firm. It will enable proper engagement with the company without complications and increase your QR code scans.

Ensure that the Destination URL is Short

QR codes are capable of holding a lot of data. However, the more the URLs are complicated, the harder it will be to scan the QR codes. Therefore, ensure that it is short to enhance efficiency. It will increase your QR code scans because clients will find it easy to perform the process.

Therefore, as a marketer, you should use the tips above to increase your QR code scans. Always make sure that the codes are attractive and that your people are aware of their existence on the prints.

Integrated Marketing Tips for The New Year

What is integrated marketing? Simply put, integrated marketing is a strategy that displays a consistent brand message across multiple platforms. There are various avenues to market your brand, whether it be the internet, television, radio or print media. In order to reach as many people as possible, many marketings opt to utilize more than one avenue. The point of integrated marketing is that the message consistent about what the brand is. With integrated marketing expected to be one of the bigger trends in 2017, marketers are looking for new tips to employ in the new year. Here are four tips for integrated marketing.

1. Find the Best Platforms to Integrate.

Once you know the target audience, you can figure out which platforms are best to sell on. For instance, if you want to target a younger audience, marketing strategies that involve the internet is the way to go. Meanwhile, an older audience is more likely to use traditional media like television. Do your research and find out what are the most suitable platforms to market your brand on.

2. Use a Marketing Management Platform.

Integrated marketing can become messy. It’s easy to forget one marketing platform when you’re busy cultivating another. That’s why you should use some kind of management software to stay organized. Resource managers are available to simplify the process for you.

3. Come Up with a Brilliant Message.

Because integrated marketing is about consistency, you need to come up with one clear and concise message to spread across all platforms. Not only does it need to represent your brand well, it needs to fit seamlessly with whatever platform it is being marketed in.

4. Look for New Ways to Integrate. 

Change in the marketing world is constant. It is ultimately up to the entrepreneur to stay ahead of the curb. Always be on the lookout for new ways to revise and improve your marketing strategy.