Posted by Grant Waldman on Wed, Feb 22, 2012 @ 01:11 PM
How many of you are using Facebook for your marketing? Considering the sheer size of Facebook's community, it is a no brainer to test out different pay per click ads.
As a Target Marketing Consultant, I have utilized Facebook pay per click marketing with mixed success. I think that the key to social networking marketing is to constantly update your message to keep it fresh. You can tie your Facebook marketing with an opt in email campaign too, using the Follow Us approach.
I wanted to take a look to see what current articles are out there to see what others are saying. Here is what I found:
Here is an article from Mashable Business titled, "9 Hot Tips for Small Business Marketing on Facebook." Here are some of their recommendations:
1. Check to confirm that your vanity URL is available on Name Vine
2. Use a tool like Hoot Suite to distribute your content
3. Use Social Plugins in Facebook whenever possible
4. Use the following app to discover when and what to post: Edgerank Checker
Here is another article from Mari Smith titled, "Facebook 2012 - What you need to know." The article states that Facebook has lowered the six degrees of separation to four!! This is because Facebook has tightened the global community - creating many more connections!
It is worth your while to learn more about how to optimize your use of Facebook for marketing. I hope that this article has been helpful! I look forward to connecting with you!
Posted by Grant Waldman on Mon, Feb 20, 2012 @ 11:04 AM
Today I asked myself how can companies utilize advertising on Skype? Funny enough, I came across an article that confirmed that Microsoft was going to begin selling advertising on Skype in the UK.
As a Direct Marketing Consultant, I am interested to see how new technologies are being utilized to build brand. With the continued growth of Social Media, advertisers are always searching for new and innovative ways to get their message out there.
With the continued growth in the use of Skype - this article confirms over 200 million monthly users - it only makes sense to begin to place pay per click ads when users open their Skype interface. I can see my clients starting to utilize Skype more and more for telemarketing efforts.
Here are some other articles on what is happening with Skype:
Here is an article from Telegeography that confirms that Skype's growth has been over 48% in 2011 to over 145 billion minutes compared to a very slow growth for international long distance of 13%.
Here is an article from TNW that confirms countries like Morocco and Egypt trying to block the use of Skype by their large telecom carriers. Users in Morocco have noticed that the quality of their Skype calls have declined in recent months - most probably due to the telecom company playing games.
Posted by Grant Waldman on Wed, Feb 15, 2012 @ 11:01 AM
There is always something new unfolding in social media land. Has anyone heard of Pinterest? What is it about? As a Direct Marketing Consultant, I am always amazed by all the new ideas that are constantly being churned online! Today's new idea has actually been around for a while. I guess I have not been paying attention. That's why email marketing helps to get the word out!
So what is Pinterest and why all the interest? ;-) I decided to do some research to see what it is all about. Here is what I found:
Here is an article from Entrepreneur magazine titled, "How Pinerest is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for Business." The article confirms that Pinerest has been around since 2010 and has grown to over 7 million unique visitors from just under 2 million in September. Pinerest is an image sharing platform that allows you to categorize the images and engage around the images rather than simply sharing them.
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Pinerest: one highlight is that Time magazine included Pinerest as one of the 50 best websites of 2011 - great PR! In Jan 2012, the site had nearly 12 million unique visitors, making it the fastest website in history to pass the 10 million unique visitor mark.
Posted by Grant Waldman on Mon, Feb 13, 2012 @ 02:21 PM
The Power of Social Media showed up again over the weekend because someone connected to a person who worked with Ms. Houston posted a Tweet 45 minutes before the Press knew! WOW! Power of the People vs. Power of the Press - that's where I see things happening! First person reporting vs. the perspective of a specific media representative.
As a Targeted Direct Marketing Consultant, I am amazed how things are changing in the media. In just a couple of years, more and more events are being reported though portals like Twitter and Facebook. Whereas, in the past, they would need to be put out in the media in order for people to know.
It's no different than comparing an opt in email campaign to a direct mail campaign. A number of years ago, if you were to tell a colleague that you would be promoting your business through an opt in email campaign, they would have thought you were delusional. Of course that is not the case today. What's even more fascinating is how direct mail is starting to pick up steam again since email has become so saturated.
I wanted to see what others were saying about how fast events are being picked up by social media. Here's what I found:
Here is an article from Forbes titled, "Should you contact the Media in Social Media?" What a concept! The articles states that the media is shedding more reporters each year since more and more people are turning to alternative sources. Why wouldn't they if they can get more timely news??
Here is one more article from Global Health Hub titled, "Social Media Faster Than Traditional Sources in Tracking Cholera in Haiti." Not only is it faster, but quite often it is coming from the source vs. a reporter.
Posted by Grant Waldman on Wed, Feb 08, 2012 @ 12:24 PM
As a Direct Marketing Consultant, I often wonder how many prospective clients come to me with a plan. How many of them actually know what they want to do before they contact me to do an opt in email or telemarketing campaign? I would hope that the medium to larger organizations have their strategic marketing plan in place. I can certainly give more slack to the smaller firms with the smaller budgets and staff.
I am sure that most of you have heard the quote: "Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail." No truer words have been said. I believe that most of what we do as productive adults in our daily work and domestic lives is based on some sort of to do list.
Today I wanted to take a look at what others are saying about businesses understanding their target market before designing their plan. Here is what I found:
Here is an article from Creative Outlet titled, "Can you define your target market?" The author provides some good input for small business owners who cannot afford to hire an advertising or market research firm to arrive at their target market. They include:
1. Survey your customers - find out why they buy from you.
2. Create your own focus group - ask friends to bring people they think could be prospective clients - who fit your target.
Here is one more article from Lawyernomics titled, "Identifying your Target Audience." The author states that the more you understand your target audience and what they need, the less marketing dollars you will waste. BINGO!! He provides some ideas to help your targeting process - here they are:
1. Segment your Customers - into industries, geographies, products, etc. Then you will know who to target what products to.
2. Who is profitable - Once you know your segments, you will also know who drives profit and who does not - who to focus marketing $$ on and who not to.
3. Know your competition - What are they doing?
I hope that this article has been helpful!
Posted by Grant Waldman on Mon, Feb 06, 2012 @ 11:08 AM
The Super Bowl - the most watched event in American TV! Last year, over 150 million people tuned in to some part of the game! What does this say about people? Does it say that they like the entertainment at half time? Does it say that football is still America's most popular sport because of it's nature?
As a Direct Marketing Consultant, I am interested to know how targeted marketing influences people to watch events like the Super Bowl. Did the promoters of the event send out a bunch of emails to fans or did they stick to traditional advertising methods like TV. I decided to do some research to see what methods were used and how effective they were or were not.
Here is an article from Business Insider titled, "Super Bowl Marketing Failures". The article highlights a number of examples of how the advertising for the Super Bowl were ineffective. The author sites examples like using a QR code in a TV commercial - how can people scan it? Another example is how Go Daddy used scantily dressed models to promote their service - this is prime time TV people!
Here is another article from International Business Times, titled, "Super Bowl Ratings - How many people will be watching in 2012?" This article confirms the number of viewers at last year's game - 163 million on and off throughout the game - with an average of 111 million. This year's game is expected to bring in 117 million viewers.
Here is one more article from Chief Marketer, titled, "Super Bowl Ads Offer ROI Measurement Challenges". One comment that is made in the article from a College Professor is: "The astonishing thing about Super Bowl advertising is that the demand for it keeps going up despite the fact that we are in a world of online marketing and media fragmentation." Exactly!! This is what amazes me! However, with over 100 million viewers, I can appreciate the demand for 30 second multi-million dollar TV ads!
Posted by Grant Waldman on Wed, Feb 01, 2012 @ 12:14 PM
Question for today: How does social media impact an organization's advertising budget and therefore staffing? What has sparked this question? I came across an article regarding P&G and Social Media, and how P&G realized that they could advertise on Facebook and Twitter for free, so why do they need to pay all of these marketing people to do marketing tasks, when other people within the organization can do so??
As a Direct Marketing Consultant, I wonder about the impact of social media on targeted direct marketing lists campaigns. I wonder about it's impact on traditional advertising. My guess is that marketing still requires a good mix to work as it always has. This is why I always recommend a multi-channel approach to marketing for my clients: a mix of an opt in email campaign, telemarketing, and direct mail - with some social media mixed in.
Here is another article from Wildfire titled, "Measuring the business impact of social media", that speaks to the impact of social media on organizations. The article is based on a survey that was given of over 700 marketers in November. The outcome of the survey confirms that nearly 100% support social media as a marketing tool, and 75% intend to increase media spending in 2012! It doesn't speak to the impact on staff, however, based on what steps P&G has taken, it would not surprise me to hear about similar layoffs elsewhere.
Posted by Grant Waldman on Mon, Jan 30, 2012 @ 10:00 AM
What will be the impact of a Facebook IPO on the direct marketing world? It has been several years since the dot com bubble burst, so it will be interesting to see what impact this enormous IPO has on other tech companies.
As a Direct Marketing Consultant, it is my hope that the IPO will have a positive impact in the markets generally. That it will bring a very positive message to people that anything is still possible with the right idea for the times. I certainly hope that it will have a positive impact on businesses' utilization of targeted marketing lists, since that is my focus.
I wanted to see what other's thoughts are on the Facebook IPO today to see if they agree that it is a good thing.
Here is an article from Forbes titled, "Facebook IPO is Nigh, should you buy?" They confirm that the IPO is expected to earn upwards of $10 Billion as compared with Google in 2004, who raised just under $2 Billion.
Here is another article from CBS Money Watch, entitled, "Will Facebook's IPO delight or disappoint?" The article states that the company is expecting a valuation of between $75 and $100 Billion. There are lots of question marks considering that recent IPOs like Groupon's shares fell shortly after their IPO. Many think that Facebook's userbase has already peaked.
We will all have to sit back and watch as the events unravel.
Posted by Grant Waldman on Fri, Jan 20, 2012 @ 11:00 AM
How have your opt in email campaigns been working? What have you been noticing that is working? How often do you test different subject lines? How often are you sending out your campaigns?
As a Direct Marketing List Broker, I am interested to learn how I can help my clients to improve the outcome of their email campaigns. Today I thought that we could look at click through rates to see how we can better optimize them.
Before I look at other's thoughts, what comes to mind for me is better calls to action. Someone has opened the email that I have sent to them, however, they did not click on any links - why? Because there is not enough incentive for them to take the next step. People are being inundated with emails and becoming more and more discriminating around which emails they are going to spend any time on.
Let's take a look at what others have to say around optimizing clicks to open.
Here is an article from the Email Institute titled, "11 Sure-Fire Ways to Increase Email Click Through Rates." Here are some highlights:
1. Like I said above, you need to test different subject lines to see which ones stick.
2. Less is More - write tighter copy - use strong calls to action and incentives
3. Include Social Sharing Options - this can really boost your clicks to opens!
Here is one more article from Business Wordsmith titled, "How to: Increase Email Open and Click Rates." He emphasizes gaining your reader's trust through your subject line (a recognized from name would help too). The article has some solid ideas on subject lines.
Posted by Grant Waldman on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 @ 12:17 PM
So what has the impact of texting on direct marketing been? How many business people are communicating with each other by text vs. email or phone? How is this driving new targeted direct marketing campaigns? These are all questions as a Direct Marketing Consultant, that I am interested to understand.
Today I thought that I would focus on the impact of texting on business in general. Here are some articles that I have located:
Here is an article from Blog Notions called "Texting is Killing Real Business Communication." The article reinforces how non-verbal communication accounts for over 50% of communication, and yet the use of texting for business purposes continues to grow. The article states that the volume of text messages being sent worldwide is in the neighborhood of 225,000 per second!! The article goes on to describe various forms of non-verbal communication, and then ends by stating that texting is fine for setting up a meeting or confirming timing. However, it cannot substitute the necessity of a face to face meeting.
Here is one more article from Small Business Trends titled, "Line2 Reports Texting is Becoming An Important Tool for Business, Not Just Personal Use." It reinforces what the above article states that more and more business people are using texting for quick question/answer dialogs.
Here is an excerpt from the article that confirms the above: "Peter Sisson, CEO of Line2, said, “Voice calls remain important for detailed business conversations, but for quick answers people just can’t be bothered with a phone call; the greeting, the small talk, the chit chat. Texting allows the sender to deliver ‘the meat’ of the message quickly and get a speedy response. Our customers report they use text mostly for simple questions, logistics and meeting arrangements.”
