Weekly Reading–All About Social Media

April 12, 2013 by Leave a comment

A few days ago, Kriti mentioned to me that I haven’t done a weekly reading post in a while and, since I’m taking a few days off this month (YESSSS!), I thought this would be a great opportunity to clear off some of the virtual piles of articles and research that I have been collecting. In the past several days, I’ve seen quite a few posts and articles that guide companies to on social media. I hope these tips help you advance your brand.

Brands Favor Social Shares Over Likes

Marketers have been asking consumers to Like their brands on Facebook for a long time. But Likes are the “digital grunts” of Facebook and the absolute minimum commitment you can request from a Facebook fan, according to an article in Adweek published on Monday. As Scott Monty, social media director at Force noted, “Likes, comments, shares—it goes in that order of importance.”

Facebook’s News Feed algorithm gives up to 1,300% more weight to shares than likes, affecting the viral performance of a promotion. An Eventbrite study found that Facebook shares are worth $4.15 each when it comes to event ticket sales, whereas retweets are worth $1.85 and LindkedIn shares are worth $.92.

Some are calling “shares” the new “retweets” because they indicate that people endorse your content to their networks and are willing to link their names to it. Ultimately, shares generate real engagement.

Social MediaMake Facebook Marketing More Mobile-Friendly

About 680 million Facebook users access the channel from mobile devices, so it is important to make your marketing mobile-friendly. Here are five things to try to improve your results:

  1. Target sponsored stories to mobile users. You can pay for a Sponsored Story targeted to mobile users when you have an important update and it will show up in your fans’ news feeds and networks on their mobile devices.
  2. Make sure your email is mobile-friendly. MailChimp reports that 40% of Americans who use mobile devices read email on them. Therefore, it is important to ensure your promotions can easily be viewed on mobile devices. Econsultancy discovered that people close emails immediately when they are not optimized for mobile. You should also keep subject lines short, use direct calls to action and consider special offers for mobile users only.
  3. Integrate mobile with your other efforts. Promote your Facebook page in stores with signage that feature QR codes, offer whisper codes on Facebook and provide incentives to check in at stores.
  4. Make sure your Facebook apps have mobile capability. Some apps for Facebook won’t work on mobile unless the developer uses “smart” URLs that detect whether the user is on a mobile device or desktop.
  5. Test everything. You want to confirm on multiple devices that your images load quickly, your links work and your message appear correctly.

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Another Year of St. Patrick’s Day Ads

March 15, 2013 by Leave a comment

No, I do not wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, I do not drink green beer and I can’t stand boiled corned beef and cabbage. My mother thinks this is a betrayal of my heritage, but I wear my Irish all year long thanks to my name. And I do notice St. Patrick’s Day advertising, so I wanted to share some examples and tips that may get you in the mood to “go green!”

  • Products. When it comes to advertising, it seems like a limited array of products and services tie in with the holiday. Beers and liquors are at the top of the list thanks to Guinness, Bass Ale, Yuengling and Jameson Whiskey. Bars and parties are also big. I thought it was very creative for Taxi Share Chicago to tie in, since they are a solution for all those who indulge too much. And there are a small number of food companies and restaurants that also promote special products,” such as McDonald’s with their shamrock shake.

In this ad for St. Patrick’s Day treats, the cookies and cupcakes blend together with the background in a riot of shamrocks—very festive! By the way, shamrocks have three leaves but clovers can have five to seven leaves (unless you get the odd four-leaf clover). The correct symbol for St. Patrick’s Day is a shamrock because the saint used it to explain the Holy Trinity.

Hyvee St. Patrick's Day Ad

  • Colors. We all know that green is the dominant color of the day but it is often complemented by orange. You can see that approach represented in the ad below for a store selling flooring. The orange really makes the categories of products stand out, which is important when there are no product images featured.

Flooring Liquidators Print AdIn contrast, Guinness invites you to “paint the town black” because of their logo and in honor of the holiday, which they extend to an entire weekend. Great idea because that triples their opportunity to sell beer!

  • Images. Again, no surprises here but shamrocks are all over everything that has to do with St. Patrick’s Day. But there are also leprechauns, horse shoes and pots of gold. Since many of the advertisers fall into the party, bar or alcohol categories, we also find quite a few voluptuous red-haired women!

All the standards are included in this ad for Saylor’s Market and the designer even threw in a rainbow for a splash of color that breaks up all the green.

Saylor's

  • Fonts. Typefaces are often used to evoke the look and feel of the days of St. Patrick and tend to be Uncial, Insular Script, Carolingian, Blackletter, Gaelic and Celtic fonts. Although these are not necessarily the actual typefaces used during that period of time. You can see samples of these fonts here.

This is an attractive ad from a florist. I wouldn’t have thought about flowers for St. Patrick’s Day but I might order some now that I have seen this. The ad uses a variety of different greens effectively and the font for the headline resembles Blackletter.

Keefe's Flowers

  • Nostalgia. If you have a story to tell about the history of your company or products, or you just want to make people yearn for simpler/better times, then you play on nostalgia. Jameson’s uses the foundation of its long history in Ireland to poke fun and suggest that the whiskey must be saved at all costs.

In contrast to these rules of thumb, we have this year’s ad for Party City. Now I realize that there aren’t many upbeat dance songs that come to mind when you think of St. Patrick’s Day but it boggles my mind why the company would opt for Mambo #5 for their ad this year. However, by going against the grain, they have gotten quite of bit of attention and it is almost impossible to get the song out of your head.

If you want more traditional design advice for your St. Patrick’s Day marketing campaigns, PrintRunner Blog offers some tips and examples of St. Patrick’s Day ads that you might find helpful.

  • Focus on your identity and never lose sight of it. Yuengling identified itself with a city that has a storied history of its own, which allowed the company to maintain its brand.

Yuengling Ad

  • Be viral. The more engaging your ads more, especially in the age where social media has become a viable medium to market your business, the more chances people would want to join your festivities. Guinness does a great job with this ad: featuring a sheep dog.
  • Acknowledge your history. People seem to put a lot of trust of brands that have stood the test of time.
  • Be sensitive with the color scheme of your ad design. Green is the color of choice because of its association with the Irish celebration.
  • Keep the design appropriate. Style your ads according to the kind of event you’re holding.
  • Tie in with the holiday. Get extra visibility for your existing marketing campaigns by inserting images or linking in upcoming events.

For those of you who didn’t grow up having to eat soda bread when you preferred brownies, here are the top ten facts about St. Patrick.

Have you tied in with the St. Patrick’s Day holiday for your advertising? If so, what has helped you to stand out and what would you suggest for other companies looking to set themselves apart?

Filed under advertising, online advertising, print advertising, SMB marketing, social media Tagged with , , , ,

Marketing to Appeal to Women

March 8, 2013 by Leave a comment

March 8th is International Women’s Day and, every year, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements, ranging from political rallies, business conferences and networking events to craft markets, performances, fashion shows and more.

What is different today than the first year of International Women’s Day in 1909 is that women are earning, spending and influencing at a greater rate than ever before. They account for $7 trillion in consumer and business spending in the U.S. and, over the next decade, will control two thirds of consumer wealth.

Furthermore, women make or influence 85% of all purchasing decisions and purchase more than 50% of traditional male products, including automobiles, home improvement products and consumer electronics. They also have most of the decision-making power when it comes to planning family vacations, according to the 2012 Women, Power & Money Study. But 91% of women say that advertisers don’t understand them.

Women's Day 1When it comes to electronics, women accounted for $55 billion of the $96 billion spent, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. Women are involved in 89% of all consumer electronics purchasing decisions. However, only 1% of women surveyed think manufacturers have them in mind when creating products. Is it any wonder when you read about CES booth babes?

“There is a fine line between marketing to women and talking down to women and I don’t think people have found what that is,” says Laura Heller, senior director of the trade publication DSN Retailing Today. A growing number of companies are starting to target their products toward female buyers, or at the very least, promote them in a more gender-neutral fashion. Retailers and manufacturers who get this are seeing impressive results.

It is not about changing the color of products to pink. Rather, it is critical to understand the consumers’ needs and complaints and come up with solutions.

This becomes even more important when you consider that women serve as broadcasters and amplifiers of ideas in the marketplace. Their purchasing decisions and word-of-mouth recommendations have wide-ranging implications for local, regional and national businesses that can’t be ignored. Women tend to share positive recommendations far more than negative ones. More than 33% of women surveyed recommended a product or service in the past six months, compared to 19% who recommended that someone not buy a particular product or service.

Here are three general tips for targeting women from Straight North Internet Marketing:

  1. Connect emotionally. One of the most important differences between marketing to men and women is the need for an emotional connection between the brand and the potential customer. One of the most well-known brands that capitalizes on this is Dove. Female consumers who see Dove marketing recognize themselves in the images shared and this is the best way of getting women to connect with your brand.
  2. Be useful. Even more than men, women love tips, advice and helpful information. They love to learn, find ways to make things better, more practical or more attractive. The more useful you can be in marketing, the more interest and sales you will eventually secure.
  3. Complement, don’t complicate. Women want solutions and to have things straightened out. Products and services that make things easier, smoother and less turbulent are desired. For example, saying “10% off everything” works much better than “10% off in March on Revlon mascaras”.

International Women's Day Ad DentistWhen it is time to design your marketing materials, consider these attributes:

  • Approach. There is no need to create gender-specific communications. You should be appealing to all audiences. Often when companies split their audiences into male and female categories, they end up generalizing and using stereotypes.
  • Colors. Women are not little girls so it is a bad idea to go overboard with pink. Along the same lines, skip script fonts, Victorian ornaments, scalloped borders and rounded corners if you want to be taken seriously.
  • Copy. You should be concise but persuasive to appeal to women rather than lengthy, dense and flowery. There should be clear calls to action and straightforward guidance, appealing to all users no matter the sex. However, women have been shown to respond to friendly, conversational copy more favorably than men, so ahead and add some personality into the copy.
  • Humor. PHD Media interviewed 1,000 people and determined that both men (76%) and women (68%) ranked wit and humor as the number one attribute that makes Super Bowl ads enjoyable (and both sexes ranked cited the same two ads as their favorites!).
  • Imagery. Feature women doing something other than the clichés of housework, mothering children or doing yoga. The number two attribute for women after humor is cute animals. At the same time, 69% of women 18-59 and 74% of women 18-34 said they like sexy imagery in ads.
  • Subjects. eMarketer notes that Boomers spend more time and money online than any other demographic but these women are completely underrepresented in marketing. Instead of youthful women in their teens and twenties, show more mature women. But be sure you display them as independent versus seeming to rely on husbands (as many are divorced or widowed at this average age of 55). They should also be active because Boomers have reached the age where they have the freedom to start new businesses, go back to school, travel, try new hobbies, etc.

As AdPearance notes in 5 Myths About Designing for Women, ultimately you need create a good user experience for all that includes clear navigation, persuasive headlines, readable copy, strong calls to action and quality imagery before you start thinking about appealing specifically to women.

The best advice to businesses targeting women is to keep your offers clear and your processes honest. Make sure you provide feedback and respond to comments and requests on social media quickly and take criticism.

The 2012 Women, Power & Money Study concludes that “Today’s American woman has changed the game. She calls the shots and makes the decisions. Her leadership is expanding, not diminishing. Any marketer or advertiser who continues to pretend otherwise does so at their own peril.”

And if you want to see what not to do, check out The 9 Worst Ads for Women This Year from The Huffington Post.

What have you tried when targeting female consumers and has it been successful or has it bombed?

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SMBs: What Content Should You Tweet?

February 22, 2013 by 4 Comments

To thrive in their communities, small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need to build personal connections with their customers and prospects. Twitter is a great way to connect and drive business. It is essentially a free local, regional and internet listing that takes just a few minutes to set up. But once you have an account, the big question is: what should you tweet to produce the right kind of results?

First things first, think about what you want to achieve. Yes, you realize you need to be on Twitter because everyone tells you so, but do you have a defined expectation? For example, do you want to provide support to customers? Do you want to drive traffic to your website? Do you want people to buy something? Do you want your brand to be top-of-mind for whenever decisions are made? Once you have determined this, much of your content strategy will fall into place.

The most likely goal is that you want to sell products and services. However, you should keep in mind is that, instead of overtly trying to promote, on Twitter your initiative should be to help and engage. This will ultimately result in long-term relationships and sales.

Social Media TermsYou need followers to read your tweets and one of the best ways to acquire and engage them is by posting links to quality content. That means you have to know your audience to share the information that interests them. Relevance is how you become known as an authority and a resource. For example, if you are a fashion expert, you don’t want to retweet something about the latest automotive trends. Furthermore, your news should also be current, not from last week or last month, because someone else has probably already shared it.

Another important consideration is that there is a correlation between the amount of personality a Twitter brand has and the success it achieves. This is one of those forms of communication in which it is beneficial to relax and let some of your personality show. People who use Twitter read and post about a wide range of subjects, not just business concerns. But you should still remain professional.

Lastly, use #hashtags. When you do, your tweet will not only be seen by your followers, it will be included in a larger stream of tweets with that same hashtag, which exposes you to many potential new followers and leads.

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10 Tips for Supporting the Sales Team in Today’s Environment

February 15, 2013 by 1 Comment

The traditional role of marketing is to create awareness of the brand, company and products through various tactics such as advertising, trade shows, public relations, email and others. Marketing is also expected to generate inquiries and leads that sales can turn into prospects and, ultimately, clients.

But the way people buy has changed dramatically, as Todd Ebert details in this eBook, due to the prevalence of information and opinion online and in social media. Very often sales joins the conversation long after prospects have heard about an offering, researched it and solicited advice from others. With this in mind, how can SMB marketers support sales?

The good news is that, despite the changes, the core objectives for marketing remain the same: directing sales to the right opportunities, promoting the organization and offering, and providing tools and information to equip sales to close deals.

Affinity Express recently hired Rick Ashcroft and Brent Hoxsey, two retail industry veterans, to help grow our business in the segment. Working with them over the past couple of months has enabled me to develop the following checklist you can use to cover all the bases with your sales team.

Social Media Buying Cycle

Social Media Buying Cycle, CMS Wire, Rob McCarthy 1-17-12

1.       Build a target list

If you don’t tell sales what and who to sell, you can bet they will sell whatever they want. Instead, your first step should be to decide on the segments and accounts you want sales to target. Describe your ideal customer(s) and list the reasons why. How large are these clients in terms of revenue, number of employees or other criteria? Does your company do well at displacing competitors or selling early adopters? What kind of unmet needs should sales look for? You might not be able to build a perfect database but you should take the time to compile as much information as you can. There is no need to buy a prospect list anymore, since you can find names of companies online from various industry sites and publications, as well as on LinkedIn.

Once you have your target list, help sales prioritize based on the most promising opportunities. If you have more than one sales person on your team, assign accounts to ensure thorough coverage and avoid duplication of efforts.

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What You Need to Know About Facebook–This Week!

February 8, 2013 by 2 Comments

Facebook is overwhelmingly the most effective social media marketing channel for small businesses, with respondents saying it is better than Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and all other social networks, based on a Constant Contact Small Business Pulse Survey.

  • 75% of SMBs said Facebook was the most effective social medium for their business
  • 56% of users are more likely to recommend a business of which they are a Facebook fan
  • 51% of Facebook users are more likely to buy after becoming a fan of a business

Despite the results, social media remains a challenge for small business owners, as 59% listed it as a marketing activity on which they need help.

With these points in mind, I wanted to share some of the latest tips, rules, news and features in recent days from the social superpower.

Social MediaFacebook Wall Post Cheat Sheet for Marketers

What works and does not work when you post on Facebook? Edgerank is the algorithm that determines what appears in News Feeds. What it boils down to is that, the more people engage with your pages, the more they will appear on the site. And it follows that high engagement equals high sales.

The Facebook Wall Post Cheat Sheet created by Linchpin SEO has statistics that will help you post content that will engage your audience. Here are a few highlights.

  • Photo posts receive interaction rates 39% higher than average.
  • Posts that contain emoticons have 52% higher interaction rates and 57% higher Like rates, 33% higher comment rates and 33% higher share rates.
  • Don’t bother with the :-) emoticon because it is so yesterday. However, :D has a +138% interaction rate!
  • Posts with 80 characters or less get a 23% higher interaction rate but 75% of posts exceed this length.
  • The most effective calls to action on Facebook include Like, caption this, share, yes or no and thumbs up. In contrast, take, click, submit, check and shop have much lower interaction rates.
  • If you want someone to share your post, you just have to ask. When publishers do, the share rate is seven times higher.
  • Along the same lines, if they are asked to comment, there is a 3.3 times higher comment rate and, if they are asked to like a post the rate is three times higher.
  • “Winner”, “win” and “giveaway” are keywords that significantly increase interaction.
  • You’ll get lower interaction rates with posts containing questions but will get a 92% higher comment rate.
  • Be sure to put your questions at the end because these posts have two times higher interaction than those with questions in the middle.

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Multi-Channel Retailing Today and Tomorrow

February 1, 2013 by Leave a comment

When I attended the National Retail Federation conference a couple of weeks ago, there was a session on “Exhibitor Big Ideas”  dedicated to what global consumers say they really want in a multi-channel world, based on a 2012 study by NCR. The research was very enlightening about the current state of retail and the preferences of today’s consumers.

The study mapped what consumers look for and like with against retailers are actually offering and there is a lot of room for retailers to improve. In fact, retail will change more in the next five years than it has in the past 20 years.

Woman Shopping Onnline1. Personalization and target marketing

When it comes to personalized coupon offers:

  • 69% of consumers worldwide would welcome them.
  • 73% of shoppers said the availability of electronic coupons is a must-have for them.
  • 27% of grocery retail locations provide personalized offers.
  • 46% of favorite grocery retailers offer electronic coupons (“favorites” were a specific sub-set of retailers cited by respondents)
  • Overall, 35% of U.S. retailers offer them but 80% of American consumers want them.

2. Buy anywhere, get anywhere

Shoppers expect a connected or converged experience. They want to feel like they are dealing with the same business in-store, online, in mobile apps, etc. Brick and mortar stores must embrace that consumers are using technology. For many, the internet has become the shopping channel of choice. Retail has gone from a B2C to a C2B experience.

For each company, all of the pricing strategies, policies and procedures have to look and work the same. The best way to accomplish this is to put the right platforms in to manage the entire ecosystem versus managing all of them individually.

  • 78% of shoppers in North America want to purchase anywhere and get merchandise shipped or picked up anywhere.
  • 82% of favorite retailers in North America offer the option but 26% did not.

There are some interesting developments happening. Retailers are creating multiple channels for returns. It’s good they are doing this because expensive or lengthy return policies and procedures were reasons for not making purchases for 76% of consumers.

Retailers have to think about getting creative because there are many opportunities to think outside the box. For example, Sears had a drive-through window for returns after the holidays.

3. In-Store Self-Service

Most grocery stores have some self-service options but there is opportunity to incorporate this approach across all retail categories. Even in grocery, many retailers have self-service in the front lanes but not enough help around the store. Consumers want independence and control of their shopping experience.

  • Nearly 20% of retailers provide in-store self-service
  • However, 44% of North American consumers desired increased in-store self-service options.

Apple consumers can walk in, buy accessories and walk out without speaking or engaging with store associates.

4. Consumer Mobile

Retailers have to do mobile right and consumers love it when they do. The experience should be clean, fast and positive. Furthermore, it has to be timely. When it works, the adoption rate will be strong and fast. From mobile apps and offers to research and payment—there is no end to the trend.

Regarding  mobile scan and pay:

  • 52% of consumers want mobile scan and pay
  • Only 12% of their favorite grocery stores offer (because it is tough to implement and there are operational considerations).

Retailers who drive this feature early may actually get consumers to switch their loyalties. Even if retailers decide they want to hang back and join this trend late, they should start soon in the next one to three years because consumers will demand this feature.

Mobile can be a win-win.

  • Consumers are using technology for faster checkout and personalized offers. They also use it to monitor spending.
  • Retailers get valuable insight into purchasing behavior, store utilization/traffic patterns and can influence shoppers at the point of decisions with targeted offers. On top of that, scan and pay is a huge opportunity.

Stepping back to look at the big picture, time is the biggest problem retailers can solve for consumers. And they are getting more impatient. They digest technology really quickly. So if “Big Brother” is smart, he will be successful.

Ultimately, retailers have to remember that the consumer is in charge. Purchasing used to be a straight line of activity. Now there are lines all over the place in the C2B experience. The best advice for retailers is to think of all the points of contact, look at their technology architecture and centralize to deliver what consumers want, as well as how and where they want.

What makes certain retailers “favorites” for you and what multi-channel options do you value most?

Filed under advertising, interactive, marketing communications, retail marketing, SMB marketing, social media Tagged with , , , , , ,

To Blog or Not to Blog in 2013

January 4, 2013 by 1 Comment

Blogging started in the 1990s when people used this platform to share their interests, hobbies and thoughts online. The goal was to connect with like-minded individuals and freely express opinions. Today, blogging has become a crucial publishing and marketing tool with an astonishing number of people using it and an even greater number following it. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 31 million bloggers as of July 2012.

Here are some more business blogging stats from business2community.com:

  • 60% of businesses have a blog
  • 35% of businesses post at least once a month
  • B2C companies who blog regularly see an 88% increase in median monthly leads and B2B companies who blog see a 67% increase in leads

An infographic by Blogger.org has some more interesting facts about blogging:

Blogging World

While the importance of having a business blog is well-established, it’s hard for SMBs not to be overwhelmed with the constant pressure of looking for something new to publish, while handling a myriad of other tasks and responsibilities. How do SMBs find enough content to keep a blog interesting and current on the latest industry trends? Here are some tips that could help you generate a steady stream of ideas.

  • Remember that change is the only constant. It is a good practice for small- and medium-sized businesses to keep track of what’s hot and what’s trending. SMB marketers needs to be in touch with the realities of their customers’ problems and aspirations to know which developments and topics would interest and get them to visit the blog often. At Affinity Express, we understand our clients’ desire to produce better creative. That’s why we publish blog posts featuring our best ads for holidays and different business categories. We also produce regular posts on marketing tactics for the future and discuss which tools are most helpful for our target audience.
  • Become a credible news source. Many companies, especially those that are engineering-driven, treat their blogs as nothing more than a public relations outlet to introduce products or announce initiatives. In other cases, companies use this interactive platform to provide how-to information for products and services. But the real objective is to get people to regard your blog as a source of credible information. To do this, you have to share industry updates and trends and add a personal touch by including your views on the news. Your posts will be a hit if you can answer “yes” about your blog posts to as many of these questions as possible.
    • Is this a new development about which you have unique knowledge or details?
    • Does your company or the author have a position of authority in the industry on the topic?
    • Is it breaking news? If not, then are you sharing it with your views, which are different from the general consensus? Is it an event where you are one of the leading presenters?
    • Is the information in your post directly relevant to your audience? Does it solve their problems and improve their lives or businesses?
    • Does your post offer an idea that is new to your industry?
  • Look ahead and forecast. People always look for ways to stay one step ahead of their peers and know what is coming, so insightful predictions get a lot of attention. Or your blog could discuss small changes or ideas that could lead to big transformations. An example of this kind of forecasting on our blog is this post that discusses the importance analytics with creativity that will shape the marketing of tomorrow.
  • Keep it democratic. Does your corporate blog provide space for readers to submit ideas and suggestions? As our readers become more involved and vocal about their likes, concerns and preferences, asking for their inputs on what should we publish on our blogs makes good sense.

One of the most interactive companies, Playstation, has a section on Playstation.Blog where users can submit and vote on ideas for improving PlayStation’s products. As of now, the most popular idea on the site suggests adding the ability to talk to friends using the PS3 Bluetooth headset even if they are playing other games. The idea has received over 25,000 votes. Inputs such as these have incredible value to businesses.

Playstation Blog

  • Build in fun. Establishing a strong relationship with your clients and prospects requires an element of fun, in the same way that environments which inspire employees and allow freedom of expression seem to have the highest productivity (a great example of this is Google). Consumers look for companies and service providers that are excited about what they do and spread the enthusiasm. Incorporate humor and the best of your personality into your posts and readers will feel positive about your blog. Plus, it is a great way to start conversations and strengthen connections with your audience.

What other blogging tactics have worked for your business? Tell us the sources that you look up when planning your blog posts.

Filed under interactive, SMB marketing, social media Tagged with , , ,

Your Marketing and Design Reading for The Weekend

November 16, 2012 by Leave a comment

As we head into a holiday week, I’m considering the many things for which I am thankful. When it comes to my work, I’m grateful that marketing is an ever-changing field requiring pros to learn and challenge themselves constantly. Personally, I have no interest in doing a job that is the same today as it was ten years ago. This was further reinforced when I was working on a response to a request for a proposal earlier this week. It was obvious the company and the person leading the purchasing process trotted out the same template they’d been using forever, despite the fact it was irrelevant to a review of solutions!

Fortunately, this assembly-line approach is not even a remote possibility in marketing. It seems that changes are happening faster than ever before and what you mastered yesterday is already old hat today. So let’s get busy learning some new stuff!

The New Marketing MachineOnline News and Blog

This post hit home for me because it states: “if you are the only person contributing to your content marketing strategy . . . you’re going to be in trouble.” Because mobile and online social platforms are 24/7 propositions, there is incredible pressure to provide compelling content to engage audiences. As a result, companies need to use all of their resources to publish more content, in more places, more rapidly than ever before. “If you don’t, you may wake up with your website in a ditch.”

The post goes on to say that content has been the lynch pin of the commercial internet since day one. But there are new digital customer behaviors and expectations, additional channels being created and evolving SEO rules to which we must adhere. Staying on top of what’s coming next requires a content marketing blueprint. Read more of this post

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Your Marketing and Design Reading for The Weekend

November 9, 2012 by Leave a comment

We have a bit of a social media and blogging theme for this weekly reading post. If you are interested in knowing what other company marketers are with their blogs and learning how to improve your effectiveness, I think you’ll find this collection helpful.

Become a Social CMOElectronic Newspapers

This was an insightful article that reminds us we have to practice what we preach. You know your company needs to be active on social media but you figure you can hire some “kid” and turn him or her loose on your behalf. Not so much.

Forrester’s Chris Stutzman points out that only 16% of CMOs believe it is necessary for them to be proficient at social media themselves to be successful leaders. They are in for a rude awakening. In the next 20 years, we will enter what Forrester calls “the age of the customer,” meaning CMOs can’t be content with customer-focused approaches. Rather, they have to become customer-obsessed.

  • A sea of customer change is heading our way.
  • CMOs must invest in social media to engage with empowered consumers.
  • We are understaffed for social initiatives.

CMOs from the largest companies do not participate in social media—only 15 CMOs from the Fortune 100 have Twitter accounts and most do not use social media to interact with customers. But CMOs have to experience social media to better lead the brand experience. “CMOs can only inspire a vision and outline a compelling road map for the brand experience when they personally understand the gaps in the company’s current social capabilities.”

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Fantastic Halloween Ads

November 2, 2012 by Leave a comment

If you were able to celebrate Halloween this year, we hope you had a safe, fun and spooky time. Now that we’ve taken off our costumes and have come down from the seasonal sugar high, the Affinity Express Marketing Team decided to compile some of our favorite ads and other creative to share with you. Some passed through our offices for our production team to design and others we just came across and enjoyed.

As you scroll through, you’ll see that the recipe for ghoulishly effective Halloween designs is:

  1. Using strong images that draw in visitors and resonate with them
  2. Tying the product into the Halloween theme
  3. Adding a healthy splash humor

Let us know which of these you like best!

I had to include this one because, despite the various new candies that are introduced every year, Snickers has always been one of my top three. In fact, when I raided the candy bowl this week (Like you didn’t?), I nabbed the regular, almond and peanut butter varieties. I just want to make sure I’m up-to-date on all the Snickers trends. Anyway, the straightforward ad does a good job of saying: Snickers = Halloween.

 Snickers = Halloween Read more of this post

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How Social Media Influences Your Sales Cycle

October 30, 2012 by Leave a comment

“People buy from people they trust and they trust people they like.” (Garrison Wynn), which means that sales are driven through personal connections. Therefore, a company’s social media efforts support sales by driving authentic interactions with your audience that lead to an increase in the intent to buy and, ultimately, more sales in shorter periods of time.

Today’s consumers research products online, check reviews and decide based on blog posts and opinions from their peers and others who have used the products. While social consumers often use their network for validation, they sometimes discover new options with specific features to meet their needs. This leads to interaction with the business and the start of sales process. Read more of this post

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10 Lessons from 100 Blog Posts

October 26, 2012 by 6 Comments

I recently celebrated the publishing of my 100th blog post for Affinity Express. To seasoned bloggers, this number is not all that impressive. But for our small team covering multiple areas of marketing, this was a major milestone for one of us to achieve that took much blood, sweat and tears (I cried because my other team members seem to write amazing posts without the same level of angst as me!).

As I know many small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) struggle to maintain a blog or wonder how they can ever get started, I thought I’d reflect on what I have learned and try to save you some of the pain I have had.Blogging, Social Media and Scrabble

1. Focus on one audience. You may have several different segments of customers, prospects, or other readers. But it is very hard to be everything to everyone. We initially wanted to speak to prospects in publishing and marketing services companies (which serve SMBs) and retailers (which have different requirements). We also wanted to provide employee topics–we have quite a diverse team–and share the expertise of various executives at our company. An added challenge for Marketing was to find enough authors and “urge” them to publish something of interest on deadline—no easy task. And meeting the objective to get people to contribute regularly like guest columnists was virtually impossible. As a result, the wide array of topics and the continually changing perspectives meant that it was hard to see the mission of the blog.

We solved the problem by streamlining. We decided our audience was the SMB marketers, the same audience that our publishing and marketing services clients target. This enables us to demonstrate that we understand the challenges our clients face and have the expertise to help them support their end customers. It builds credibility for our services and the related support we provide. It also makes it easier for us to determine whether a topic makes sense for us to cover or not.

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Your Marketing and Design Reading for The Weekend

October 19, 2012 by Leave a comment

This week, I came across several posts talking about trends of interest to SMB marketers, ranging from content marketing to mobile to social. I try to keep everyone at Affinity Express up-to-date on what “the experts” are saying about our various target segments and the services we provide. We use the knowledge to help us make choices in our future direction and even to validate past decisions. There is always a lot of information to digest but you can’t take your eye off the ball because things can change quickly. I hope you get some value out of this compilation from just the past few days.

Content Marketing the #1 Driver of Leads for B2B MarketersMarketing Graph

B2B Magazine conducted a survey of 440 B2B marketing professionals that revealed content marketing is the most important tool for generating leads (51%), coming out ahead of brand awareness (38%), thought leadership (34%) and sales (29%). Two-thirds of the respondents said they will be either “very” or “fully” engaged in content marketing by next year. This is a 100% increase over 2012 to 2013. As we work so hard to generate relevant content each week for our audience, it’s nice to know so many other B2B marketers agree with our choices.

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Your Marketing and Design Reading for The Weekend

October 12, 2012 by 1 Comment

Are you being asked to justify your use of social media for business or wondering if it’s time to finally jump in to increase visibility for your company? This week’s post covers several articles on social media in general, LinkedIn new features, Google+ and blogs. Because it is difficult to specifically tie revenue to social media activities (especially when you are a B2B company), the overall theme for marketers here is: “It isn’t easy being social.”

But My Business is DifferentImage of Tweets

Three things about this post hooked me: the title, the image of the cat and the first line: “Ever felt overwhelmed by social media advice?” I use my weekly blog post to give some order to the chaotic amount of suggestions I read. Yet I often find myself on the outside looking in because Affinity Express is not in an long-established business category like a printer or ad agency. Oh, and I love cats.

It’s especially challenging to know where to start when your industry doesn’t use social media at all or the predominant opinion among your peers is that it is too casual or too personal. The author suggests this is actually the perfect time to start in social media because you will be ahead of the pack. I could not agree more. Not everyone at Affinity Express understands why we engage in social media but we offer Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter designs for our clients to sell to their end customers. How can we not use these sites for our own business?

The post goes onto say that, when you are the first in a category, you can take inspiration from all kinds of other businesses and define what social media means and how it fits into your industry. As a result, what you thought was a problem—social media strategies not applying to your business—is really not a problem at all. It is an opportunity to learn to think differently about how social media can work for you.

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Your Marketing and Design Reading for The Weekend

October 5, 2012 by Leave a comment

Maybe the only thing increasing faster than the use of mobile devices to research and purchase merchandise is the number of articles about this topic. We are definitely follow the trends at Affinity Express because we not only support major retail clients, we also provide mobile ad and mobile website design for smaller retailers through our publishing and marketing service clients. Here is some of the coverage from this week that I found interesting from both the retail marketing perspective and the consumer standpoint.

Your Company Needs a Mobile Strategy Yesterday–And These Numbers Prove ItWoman Shopping on Phone

Since I’m writing this post as a representative of Affinity Express, I’m not going to quote the first line of this article but it basically notes what one third of us would rather give up than our mobile phones. That pretty much reinforced what I already knew–it’s time to marketers get serious about mobile if they haven’t already!

Yet few big brands are doing it (mobile marketing, not the other thing). Mobile advertising accounted for less than 1% of worldwide ad spending in 2011 (eMarketer). This is despite the evidence that it works well. For example, a mobile-based loyalty program for Maurices (a chain of women’s clothing stores) was directly responsible for $1 million in sales in four months.

The article lays out several reasons why mobile should be part of any company’s marketing plans:

  • Mobile interaction is the internet 3.0–mobile platforms and apps are driving more and more online traffic and customized user experiences and there will be huge increases of mobile-only internet users in the next few years. Read more of this post

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Your Marketing and Design Reading for The Weekend

September 28, 2012 by Leave a comment

It is a beautiful day in the Chicago area and I’m finishing up my blog post now to at least have a possibility of getting a breath of fresh air later. In the meantime, I hope this post helps you wrap up the week and take a well-deserved break from your desk.

A Day in the Life of a Social Media ManagerWoman Reading Newspaper

These types of article on what you should be doing and how long everything should take are very helpful to me. But they also give me a tension headache. It always sounds so logical and organized on paper but who’s day actually progresses that way? We don’t have a dedicated person for social media at Affinity Express, so that’s part of our challenge. But I don’t think content creation flows so smoothly, nor can social media practitioners can simply work through a checklist if they are paying attention and responding to what is going on.

Nevertheless, this is a good outline against which to benchmark yourself or your marketing team. But don’t get stressed out if this approach looks nothing like yours and you still get results. I like the advice that the social media resource should work closely with the demand generation team to create successful campaigns. It also makes sense to hire someone for this role who is a “digital native,” meaning entrenched in the internet and knowing the ins and outs of social marketing (regardless of age).

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Your Marketing and Design Reading for The Weekend

September 21, 2012 by Leave a comment

After a great trip last week to Manila to meet with the Affinity Express team at our production facility, I am happy to be back at my desk (but oy, the jet lag!). There was a stack of publications and a full in-box waiting for me, so I found quite a few articles I think you will find interesting for your weekend reading.

The results are in: Pitney Bowes Small Business Marketing SurveyWeekly Marketing Reading

Pitney Bowes surveyed 750 small businesses to determine how they use marketing channels and to identify areas for improvement. They also provided tips and suggestions for each channel.

The survey turned up some interesting statistics

  • 46% of respondents use email as their primary channel for business communication.
  • 73% of respondent do not measure their email marketing metrics.
  • 80% do not measure their direct mail or transaction mail metrics

The reason email is so prevalent is ease of use and cost-effectiveness. Although small businesses employ other channels, the bulk of their communications is in traditional channels like email, phone, direct mail and others.

When considering the size and length of time in business of the companies, none of the larger companies use social media as their primary business channel, nor do any of the businesses 11 to 15 years old. The ones that do use social media primarily tend to have ten or fewer employees and are less than ten years old. In contrast, larger companies use transaction mail as the main communication channel more than their smaller counterparts.

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5 Tips for Building Social Media Calendars

September 11, 2012 by Leave a comment

Social media offers a myriad of choices to small to medium-sized business owners. However, “One effect, paradoxically, is that it produces paralysis rather than liberation . . . and even if we manage to overcome paralysis and make a choice, we are less satisfied than we would have been if we had fewer options.” according to the psychologist Barry Schwartz. The way to overcome the paralysis is to have a structure. I’m not talking about spending all your time planning so you have no time left for doing. Rather, I’m suggesting you commit to a schedule for social media marketing.

Social Media Calendar

Initially, it seemed like a time-consuming task to me, but I quickly realized how comfortable it makes my life. We are lost without our Google calendars every day. The same logic applies when it comes to planning social media marketing. With so many tools available for creating a calendar, planning social media for an SMB entrepreneur or marketer has become much easier. Tools like timeline calendar helps in planning Facebook postings, tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck and SocialOomph come with many auto alerts. They help to pre-program your social media activities and also post on your behalf on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social sites. This feature makes it very convenient for weekends or other times when you are away from work. Social media can also be planned using a simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and shared on Google Docs, where all team members can see it and make suggestions.

Here are some tips for making your social media calendar:

1.        Focus on small periods of time initially

Do not attempt to create a whole year’s calendar for two reasons: first, it is going to be such a huge task that it might put you off, and second, we are dealing with media in real-time here. The stories, discussions and trends change every day and we need to respond. That’s why planning for a week or two to start allows you to be ahead of things while also having enough time to plan for new developments. Read more of this post

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Your Marketing and Design Reading for The Weekend

September 7, 2012 by Leave a comment

This week, we’re all about social and sales. I think about social media, the effort we’re making, our relative success levels and ROI at this time every year because our annual strategy meeting with the Board of Directors and Senior Business Team is coming up. And I’m always thinking about sales because it pays the bills. That being said, here’s what caught my interest this week.

A Day in the Life of a Content Marketing ManagerYoung Man Reading Marketing Articles from Tablet

This is a nice post from Marketo that reinforces businesses–and specifically marketing pros–are being asked to become publishers today. This is not an easy transition, especially for smaller companies when one or two people handle a multitude of marketing responsibilities.

It strives to outline a day in the life, covering all of these areas: thought leaders items (including definitive guides and whitepapers), blog management curation and contribution, webinar program planning and production, copy editing all contributed content (if you’re lucky to get any) and ensuring all content is on-brand, consistent in terms of style, quality in tone and optimized for search and social promotion.

That’s not exactly a small job on its own, but its helpful to see a specialist’s take on the role.

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