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When you’re a brand looking to use social media to raise awareness of your products and services, boost website traffic footfall and drive sales, where do you turn? Which social network is right for you? Largely, it depends on your goals. What are you trying to achieve? While a broad presence across two or more social platforms usually pays dividends for businesses, if resources are limited and time is strained, finding the best social channel for your needs is the most sensible way forward, based on audience size, relevant demographic and target profile. Check the infographic below for a very useful overview of the top social media platforms for brands....
Vine is the hottest new kid on the block, and although people are still a little tentative about using anything that involved video, this is really helping to introduce a new medium to people in the least intimidating way possible. The thought of creating a 10-minute video is terrifying to a lot of people. A 6-second video? Well, that’s not so bad. Using Vine can be fun, but it can also be a promotional tool for your brand or content. So this week’s Brilliant Bloggers is filled with advice on making the most of this new platform....
Ready to launch a B2B mobile marketing strategy but not sure where to start? Try these 15 tips you can use today. If you’re like many people, you can think of a lot of ways B2C companies use mobile marketing. But if you work in the B2B world, then you might be stuck trying to come up with B2B mobile marketing ideas. The good news is that B2B mobile marketing can be every bit as useful in the business marketplace as it is in the consumer marketplace. With that in mind, I thought I’d share some of the best uses of B2B mobile marketing so that you can apply some of the ideas to your business. But before we get started, let’s recap a few mobile marketing statistics so that you can better understand why B2B mobile marketing is becoming so critical in today’s world. Check out these statistics compiled by BarnRaisers.com: 96% of marketers currently use or are planning to incorporate mobile into their mix 85% report an intent to raise their mobile budgets in the near future 84% use mobile websites; 78% mobile search; 76% mobile apps and 75% mobile display ads 42% are concerned about having proper mobile metrics in place 42% report an ability to prove ROI Only 21% state they have been successful in mobile – a decrease from 2010 Now you’re convinced, right? If you’re still unsure of how exactly to go about implementing a B2B mobile marketing strategy, here are 15 ideas to get you started:...
... Stories have a connective quality, linking individuals together through similar emotions, thoughts, moulding our minds and reinforcing experiences. Although it may not be an intuitive conclusion, this is especially true in business. Besides merely relaying information, a relevant and compelling story can bring employees together for a common goal & becomes a stong engagement technique to be used in the workplace. Hearing stories about employees who behaved properly or employees who made similar mistakes when dealing with Customers and still succeeded at the company, can make team members feel more comfortable to try new things and to strive for new heights. Understanding that employees in the history of a company that have had opportunities to learn and grow through errors and triumphs can be a rewarding conclusion. The unifying quality of storytelling can be particularly useful when working with new employees. Remaining cognisant of the fact that team members new to an organisation do not understand the same details about clients, customer service, history and company objectives in the same way seasoned employees do, is something for which management must strive towards....
If you build links like an actual human being then you're building links like a badass. You're making friends and your links are bulletproof. It's hard work. It will take time, energy, and brainpower to increase your rankings and traffic. SEO has changed. We can't rely on spam and automation to boost traffic and search rankings anymore. A few years ago, link builders never gave that kind of stuff a second thought – it's just how things worked. The industry is different now, but the good news is that you can still be a badass link builder in the post-Penguin era. The better news is that you only need one tool to build the best links in the world: your brain. We need to think like human beings because we affect other human beings with our work. The age of robots has ended. Keeping that in mind, you can build some killer links that hold up to algorithm changes and make the Internet a better place – you just have to be smart about it. Being a badass link builder requires hard work and even harder thinking, but you already have the tools to succeed....
Earlier this week, I posted about the Facebook meltdown and trials and tribulations of Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro in Scottsdale. Arizona (Epic Facebook meltdown, PR fail or publicity ploy?). This un-reality show couldn’t get much stranger. It has more twists, turns and intrigue than a Shakespearean tragedy. Or maybe the Keystone Cops would be more accurate? The bistro was featured in a raucous season finale episode on Kitchen Nightmares featuring explosive celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. It was an entertaining and highly-charged reality TV episode complete with drama, screaming, yelling, heroes and villains....
Double standard much? Debate has heated up in Sweden regarding American Apparel's sexualization of its female models. The retailer's shock-tactic ads featuring naked women are certainly nothing new. But this week Swedish blogger Emelie Eriksson made headlines by juxtaposing male models' poses in unisex American Apparel Clothing with the R-rated images of women wearing the same shirts (often sans pants). To show how American Apparel's double standard works, a small Swedish clothing company named byPM decided to do a photo shoot in which a man posed in the same position....
With Facebook and Twitter becoming highly popular among the masses, it provides a great platform for the promotion and branding of a business. Because of the high potential of social media marketing to boost the exposure of a business among millions, the strategy is being widely applied by many small and large organizations in the current times. However, because of its increased application, the medium has become highly competitive and approaching it without strategic planning and execution can give poor to negative results. Given below is a list of strategies and ideas using which you can apply social marketing strategy more effectively which will help in strengthening the brand value of your firm among the general populace....
If your 'About' page ain't too nifty, check out these examples and fix it up in a jiffy. When you’re building a website, it’s tempting to get distracted by all the bells and whistles of the design process and forget all about creating compelling content. But having awesome content on your website is crucial to making inbound marketing work for your business. So how do you balance your remarkable content creation with your website design needs? Why, with your 'About Us' page, of course! For a remarkable 'About Us' page, all you need to do is figure out your company's unique identity, and then share it with the world....
... Nearly 40% of CMOs do not think they have the right people and resources to meet their goals, says an Accenture report entitled “Turbulence for the CMO”. Martin Sorrell, the boss of WPP, the world’s biggest marketing and advertising group, says that since the 2008 financial crisis marketers have been elbowed aside by finance and procurement chiefs. Dominique Turpin, the head of IMD, a Swiss business school, writes that “the CMO is dead”. Yet some have never felt perkier. With new digital tools marketers can reach the likeliest customers when they are most in the mood to buy. Last summer Wall’s ice cream and O2, a mobile-phone network, teamed up to send advertisements to Londoners’ smartphones when temperatures climbed. When the weather cooled Kleenex, a brand of tissues, used Google search terms and health-service data to target ad spending to areas likely to suffer the most sneezes. Andy Fennell, the marketing boss of Diageo, a drinks firm, thinks this is “a golden era for brand builders”....
For any successful organization that relies on the Internet for leads and sales, marketing automation stands to increase efficiencies and revenues. Here's a look at marketing automation: the primary elements, core benefits, and opportunities. ...Among the growing number of marketing agencies and "experts" who produce such varied results under such varied budgets – it's no wonder why marketing is frequently perceived by business owners as a cost center instead of a profit center. Marketing automation helps fix this – and although there are many marketing automation platform providers (Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, etc.), the platform as a concept is now also emerging as a popular investment for numerous companies worldwide. The Elements of Marketing Automation The 10 primary elements of marketing automation include...
...One of the interesting things about these B2B content marketing campaigns is a fairly consistent LACK of attention to optimizing content assets (images & infographics, video, PDFs, etc) for search. Many of these campaign assets could continue to attract new prospects or at least attract more than they are if the assets were more visibile for relevant keywords. Just using the titles of the files and documents was difficult to find many of these. Many of these content assets are near invisible when it comes to buyer-centric keywords. Just remember marketers, when it comes to content, there’s no excuse not to socialize, advertise, publicize AND optimize. This approach represents a lot of what we do at TopRank Marketing. Here’s the full deck for details on each Killer Content Marketing campaign plus performance data. Enjoy!
Social media marketing podcast 41, in this episode Jamie Turner shares how to start with mobile marketing and why your mobile customers matter.... Do you use mobile marketing for business? Are you wondering how to get started? To learn how mobile marketing and social connect, I interview Jamie Turner for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast. It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing....
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But how do you generate leads with successful webinars? This is the fun part! You get to use traditional and new tactics to gain registrations. You’ll use media relations, email marketing, social media, direct mail, content, and advertising. In most cases, you’ll be marketing to prospects who haven’t made a decision yet to work with you, former clients, or someone new entirely. Host a Successful Webinar Following is a step-by-step list of how you’ll do this. Of course, this list could change, depending on your business and your industry, but it provides a good place to begin thinking about how to generate good, qualified leads from content....
In a recent conference, I was asked my opinion on what is the biggest opportunity in B2B Content Marketing? Without hesitation, I answered “Slideshare.” With more than 50 Million visitors per month and more than 100 million pageviews, slideshare is one of the top websites in the world and should be a key focus of any B2B content marketing program. According to Comscore, Slideshare is used by business owners and business executives at a rate 5 times any other social network! The top categories in Slideshare are Business and Technology, followed by Education, Travel and Health. In its own blog, slideshare released an infographic celebrating its 10 millionth uploaded presentation. They even curated a selection of resources to help you understand what to upload to slideshare....
Some 66% of small-business owners are using mobile devices and/or mobile solutions as part of their operations, according to a recent report from Constant Contact. Of those small-business owners using mobile devices, 73% said they use their phones or tablets to conduct social media marketing, and 71% said they use their devices to conduct email marketing. When asked what types of mobile/social advertising they currently employ, 97% said they use social media platforms like YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram....
It ain’t easy being a startup. Without a massive marketing budget, smaller companies often find themselves relying on the media to get the word out. While this is no easy task for even the biggest and most polished companies, for shoestring operations, it can be absolutely daunting—especially if none of the founders have any experience dealing with the press. Fortunately, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my years as both a technology journalist and a startup founder, it’s that most common PR mistakes are pretty easy to prevent. So whether you’re able to hire a a PR pro—or have to DIY the job—here are 10 of the most common PR mistakes that all startups should seek to avoid....
Do you want to know how to get more followers on Twitter? Many businesses are now using this social platform as part of their social media marketing strategy. I’ve put together seven tips to increase engagement and get more followers for your business tweets.....
A recent study shows Twitter outperforms LinkedIn and Facebook 9 to 1 for lead generation. For B2B marketers, that's a big deal. Here's a quick guide on getting the most out of your Twitter for lead gen campaign.
Social media is a delicate proposition for Beer brands. On one hand their product is one of the most social products available. On the other hand, there are regulations about how social the brand itself can be. This article looks at the top Beer brands on social media, and what they are doing to get themselves there. Overall Facebook has been, and continues to be, the strongest platform for promoting beer. It has solid age restriction barriers in place – unlike Twitter, which has a more freewheeling, unrestricted access, philosophy. However, in recent times the Beer companies have started to become more active on Twitter, perhaps in recognition of a characteristic that they with it… the ability to generate Buzz. Here’s a look at the top 5 Beer Brands and how they are using social media....
...According to Instagram’s official press page, there are 100 million monthly active users, 40 million photos per day, 8500 likes per second, and 1000 comments per second. This flurry of activity shows that not only is Instagram one of the most popular social networks, engagement is also relatively easy, making it a great opportunity for companies that are willing to post regularly. ...Huge brands like Coca-Cola and major celebrities like Justin Bieber are using Instagram to connect with their fans and customers on a more personal level.... Just like the social networks that came before it, using Instagram as part of your overall online marketing initiatives helps you introduce new and existing products to your target market, build a sense of community with your customers, and gather more online exposure....
using the most common online tool you can think of. Google. It’s completely under-appreciated as a PR tool. Let me share a few specific details, so you can get your company or your clients more business online....
So your online business has always experienced praise for its crisp quality content from customers and admirers? But as of late, maybe you’ve noticed that your posts are facing a lot of stagnancy in reaching your perfect target audience? And after initial analysis, you may have realized that your social media messages somehow lacked the “visual magic” that is necessary for image success? Below are some tips to get you back on track....
So how did we grow the business to over 100,000 customers? Well for starters we used to have a free plan, which helped a lot. And you probably see advertisements for Crazy Egg all over the web, but we’ve been over 100,000 customers for years. Before that point we didn’t have a big marketing budget… all we had was $10,000. So how did we do it? 7 essentials to startup success...
Getting more results from social media can be difficult. Here are a few tips that may help.... ...Social media strategist Jay Palter recently wrote about the social media ROI quandary for The Globe and Mail. Palter says that most people who overemphasize small gestures like Facebook likes are ultimately likely to be underwhelmed by their meager effect on their bottom lines. "Before you conclude that you may be wasting your time for the measly return, let me ask you an important question: What did you invest in social media?" he writes. "If you're investing time and resources in social media mostly to promote yourself, drive traffic to your website and convert leads to new business, you're likely going to be disappointed." Getting more results from social media can be difficult. Here are a few tips that may help....
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with limited resources and strained, finding the best social channel for your needs is the most sensible way forward, based on audience size, relevant demographic and target profile.
Interessant!!