Digital Marketing (5)

Posts Tagged ‘Digital Marketing’

5 Interesting Uses For Twitter

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

“My cat is eating pancakes” doesn’t count.

I like it when people take something and make it another thing. Call it hacking, if you want. I think the word has some bad connotations on it, though, that scare non-tech types into shying away from the digital space.

Either way, there are people that haven taken this tool, Twitter, and made it into something more. Which, in a way, is the story of the company. So it fits.

As marketers, we should always be thinking of new ways to communicate that are interesting and helpful. Especially when we’re given a great new avenue like Twitter.

Here are five interesting uses for Twitter.

1. Twitter as Talent Scout Literary agents (hip ones, anyway) are using Twitter to find hidden writing talent. I guess if you can say it in 140 characters, you’d kill it in book form.

2. Twitter as Note Pad Say you have an idea. You want to share the idea, but you don’t have time. You need something- a notepad- to write it down. Only you don’t carry a notepad. You carry an iphone.

3. Twitter as Fan Fiction If you’ve ever seen a movie or read a book with a character you really like (I mean really like), and you wished that character had more to say, look no further.

4. Twitter as Search Engine Twitter “power users” with tens of thousands of followers can ask a question and get hundreds of quick answers. Well, everyone else can too.

5. Twitter as GPS Knowing your precise location, and using it to find the precise location of everything else, is definitely something new for most people. You’ll still get lost, but now you won’t have to stop to ask for directions.

I think all those things, and the thousands of other stories like them, are really cool. Not just the actual applications or uses, but the ideas that went into making them.

Here’s this thing for wide-range instant messaging. I’m going to make a ______ for that, and people will use it to ________.

My question is, how many people have taken the same tack with their marketing? Here are all these tools. What are we going to make?

Tags: content, Digital Marketing, getting started in social media, marketing mindset
Posted in Digital Marketing | 1 Comment »

Three Things You Should Be Doing (But Probably Aren’t)

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

With all the talk about different ways to market your business, there’s not much to be seen on the simple things. Here are some easy steps that could improve your digital marketing and your bottom line.

Call Tracking
While I was at Pubcon in Las Vegas, there was plenty of talk about social media, search, paid search, and more. Marty Weintraub and Michael Dorausch both mentioned call tracking, something we hear very little talk about.

It’s a technology that we’ve experimented with for over a year, and the information that can result is all useful. You can use call tracking by simply embedding a “throw-away” phone number on your landing pages, your website, social media profiles, and print ads. Using unique numbers allows you to then track the effectiveness of that placement.

Additionally, you can write conditional code which will show different numbers depending upon how they entered your website. In other words, if someone enters via an organic search query from Yahoo!, they’ll see a different number than if had they entered from a search on Google.

And there’s the metrics. You can learn the geographic origination of the phone call. You can see how long they talked. How many times they called. More. This information not only helps understand the effectiveness of your marketing, but can also help evaluate your customer service by studying call duration and repetition.

Talk to Your Customers
When was the last time you really talked to your customers? I’m not meaning just sending off email surveys (which are good), but actually talking to folks. Ask them for a few moments of their time while they are visiting your location. Or simply give a them a quick phone call.

You can find out helpful information such as what social networks they use, and what they thought of their experience with you. Simply ask them for their time, ask the questions, and give them a little something for their effort.

Customer Service Training
Do you train your employees on how to better serve your customers? Tony Hsieh at Zappos, requires ALL new hires to go through customer service training. Everyone there can answer the phone, answer your questions, fulfill your order, and on and on.

Think that’s helpful during the holiday season? What do you think that would do for consistency of customer interaction? Hint: Satisfaction is through the roof at Zappos.

It’s easy for the big companies, right? They have the budgets. Small businesses are faced with a number of different obstacles when it comes to implementing a customer service training program. Budget, time, and know-how are all factors which no one seems to have enough of.

But putting forth the effort to create training programs can have a tremendous impact. What if you raised your conversion rate by 1%? 2%? 10%?!

Sometimes, simple is the answer. Training can help you make the most of your marketing spend. And it helps focus on conversion and customer service.

What are you doing to boost conversion rate?

Tags: Digital Marketing, marketing strategy, Pat Strader
Posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing | No Comments »

5 Books You Need For Digital Marketing 101

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Not everyone is a fan of business books. No problem. There are ways to get around that.

But there are some new (or new-ish) titles that everyone should read. Here’s why: Together, they are primer on how digital marketing is done.

That means if read these and you can start to create digital marketing strategy with just about anyone who lives and works on the digital side of life. That includes web developers, content strategists, graphic designers, and on and on.

Enjoy…

1. Letting Go Of The Words by Ginny Reddish First of all, this isn’t a narrative. It’s a textbook. And there’s no better work on the nuts and bolts of writing for the web. If you want to know how to make your written content useful, this book explains all.

2. Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff This is the book that identifies what social media is, who will be using it, and how it’s taken over the online world. There are a fair number of statistics, which can make it seem dry. But for anyone that works with a team that needs to be convinced about social media, this is the book to do it.

3. Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath This one isn’t digital-specific. But it does explain how to translate your ideas in interesting ways. And “interesting” is exactly what’s needed in an environment where attention spans (even yours) are measured in fractions of parts of bits of seconds.

4. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith If Groundswell explains the what, who, and how of social media, Trust Agents is the “why”. This book explains the power of influence, reputation, and relationships in the world of the social web.

5. The Back Of The Napkin by Dan Roam Draw stick figures. Be understood. Repeat. It’s the communication tool that those of us without the gift of graphics have always looked for. Especially now. Information has gone far, far beyond simple text. This book explains how to get there yourself.

Tags: books, content, content marketing, Digital Marketing, marketing strategy
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

One Really Cool Thing About Digital Marketing

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

As a wise man once said, we’re living in the future.

Big parts of marketing budgets past used to go toward one thing: production. Paper and distribution. Stamps. They were fixed costs, and the companies with big resources could easily outproduce small business.

Not so now. There are still costs, but those two things- production and distribution- are essentially free.

Think about creating a direct mail piece focused solely on how great your customers are. As far as I know, that never happened. But digitally, you’re free to devote as much space to that as you like.

People can choose you. If you’re content is good, you get read. People will talk to you. It’s distribution on its head.

What you don’t have to do is spam, or do the pre-digital version of spamming. There’s a lot of that going on still and yet. There always will be.

But it’s a pretty nice time to be doing what we’re doing.

Tags: business relationships, Digital Marketing, marketing strategy, writing
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

The Two Things Your Site Absolutely Needs To Do

Friday, October 30th, 2009

If you’re in charge of your web site, you know everything about your business. There’s a real temptation to put up every piece of information about you have about yourself.

Most people who go that route end up with a big, wordy mess. The problem is, it’s hard to see it if you’re the one making the mess.

People only come to your site for two reasons: to get information, and to perform a task.

If a reader doesn’t instantly see how to do those things, they’re leaving. So you have use all that information you have to focus. To pare down. To get to the point.

Make it easy. Yes, you want to talk about your sale or your event. But do it in a way that allows people to immediately get their information, immediately perform their task.

Doing the opposite is a common mistake. If someone needs to find out the dates and times your event takes place, they shouldn’t have to search for it.

Likewise, if there’s some information that makes your business stand out (not just, “we’re better than the competition”), put that front and center. Give that information away- don’t make your readers hunt for it.

It should all be easy to read. Stay away from long paragraphs, or big blocks of text. Use subheads to break up your ideas. Use numbered and bulleted lists. Use your imagination.

The quicker your site gives people information, or helps them perform a task, the more conversions you’ll get. Always.

Tags: content, Digital Marketing, marketing mindset, marketing strategy, writing
Posted in Content Creation | No Comments »

What Your Digital Marketing Plan Has To Include

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

The most important piece of marketing advice you’ll ever use is this: Plan.

It’s no longer OK to throw everything at a wall and see what sticks. “Everything” is too big. There are too many tools and techniques in the digital world to try. This? Or Planning...

And there’s this: The wall has changed. The wall now responds. People can interact, talk back, talk bad, and just have just about any voice they’re willing to have about you.

So now more than ever, plan. Here’s what your plan should include:

-Who’s in charge. Someone needs to own the plan.

-A definition of success, AKA conversion. Know what you want people to do.

-Graphic design. You should be able to help your designers realize your vision.

-Written Content. The writing needs to be integrated into the plan.

-Photo and video assets. Know where these are coming from before you start.

-SEO components. It’s always ongoing, and needs to be accounted for.

-A firm grasp of what you’ll do and what you’re marketing company will do; you have to participate.

-A timeline. You need a period of time with a launch and a finish that you can use to measure your success.

In terms of personnel, you can think of a digital marketing plan in three parts, ala the intro to The Back Of The Napkin. Development, Content Strategy, and Design.

You can fit everything you need for a sound plan into one of those jobs, and all of the responsibilities on the list above, as well. The challenge is making yourself a part of the plan.

Tags: business relationships, content, content marketing, Digital Marketing, marketing strategy
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

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