GEICO puts the “pig” in funny!
It’s funny how Geico Insurance puts out some great TV spots and others that just bomb. I don’t particularly like the overall “if you switch…” concept—it’s a little contrived and simplistic but maybe that’s what makes it so universally liked. The “Little Piggy” spot is not only funny, but executed well on a shoe-string budget!
New study from eMarketer shows that consumers prefer promotions through email than other means of communications—even social media.
I know, I know…I promised more exciting creative commentary. I just can’t help myself—as I have been saying all along, an engaging, targeted email campaign will give you a minimal 6%+ unique click rate versus 1-3% for a direct mailer. Pending the offer and messaging, I’ve seen up to 50%+ unique click-through rates with product coupons and other relevant offers. It goes further up from there when you begin to act on segmentation opportunities and shopping cart abandonment techniques which can produce up to 75% open rates and unique clicks with significant ROI.
SECURITY CONCERNS ANSWERED
There have also been security concerns with email viruses and phishing scams. Viruses can be tackled with firewall enhancements and self monitoring. If you get an email from an unfamiliar source, do not open it and contact your IT professional or just spam it and trash it. There are server-side apps out there like Postini and other spam blockers that will help keep the junk out.
Phishing scams are just a simple common-sense solution. If anyone asks for account information or other personal information like social security numbers, address changes, phone number and other information that could put your security at risk, don’t click, just delete. You can report suspected phishing scams to this government agency: http://www.us-cert.gov/nav/report_phishing.html
Those marketers and business owners out there who believe email is just too risky and expensive as a marketing vehicle are missing out on a huge opportunity to leverage their brand and target to people that need their products and services. A targeted captured email list is like sales gold…heck, like sales platinum! Dismissing it is like having people lined up at a clothing store, excited to get in and spend money, just to have the owner close the doors on them.
Customers and/or clients that sign up for email newsletters and other information are interested in what you have to say and sell because they took the time to submit their information. If businesses in this economic environment want to compete and take market share, they must budget and utilize email marketing best practices.
In today’s economic environment, hiring full-time or even part-time design and web development help could cause uncertainty for your bottom line in an already fractured economy. In fact, according to JWTSC, hiring the average employee within the first three to six months costs about 15k-25k for initial hiring, training, travel, relocation, reimbursements, sign-on bonuses, initial loss of productivity, and many other administrative costs—just to have them quit, fired or laid off within the first year or two of employment. This is where I can help you get back to focusing on servicing your clients and growing the business.
Here are 10 reasons to outsource your creative and marketing to a freelancer in this economic environment:
- You’re getting a trained and experienced industry professional that will hit the ground running
- They have a better understanding of your budget and deadline needs
- Negotiable upfront fees and expectations
- Unique/fresh outside perspective of your business and strategic marketing needs
- You’ll use less office space, equipment and IT services for a new hire/department
- No benefit or bonus expenses
- Offset marketing staff reductions
- Minimized overhead allows for more affordability
- Flexible payment options from retainer fees to hourly rates to per project pricing
- Tax deductible (Ask your accountant)
There’s no question that a freelancer delivers leadership, experience and expertise at an investment you can afford. I would even argue that they provide companies a marketing advantage over their competition. Companies that are utilizing outsourced help are really taking advantage of a more progressive way of marketing in today’s environment.
I do understand the controversial nature of this subject in such difficult economic times, but the reality is that companies are looking for ways to save and redistribute their marketing budgets for more productive results and creatives and marketers need to take advantage of the opportunity.
I’m not the type to wait for things to get better or change in my favor. This is the time to adapt with the changing economic environment and the way businesses are conducting business.
I know I’m posting lots of statistics and surveys and it’s not the most exciting subject matter I want to post, but I always feel compelled to put surveys and “trends” in perspective.
AWeber recently posted a poll in regards to how small businesses are integrating social media into email marketing campaigns. This is a very interesting survey and I would have to say to those businesses who are integrating most of these tactics to be very smart in their decision.
It is vital to integrate social media where it makes sense in any email marketing campaign. In conjunction to the discussed tactics in this survey, I would suggest some additional ideas including:
- Design and write the article content in your email “blast” as a teaser so that the reader would have to click on a link to a blog or your Facebook page to read the entire entry. This also provides them the ability to friend you on Facebook or register on your blog. These are the most serious/hard-core interested folk you’re intending to communicate with.
- Give the end-user of your email communications the opportunity to receive the same emailed information through other means of social media like a blog, Facebook or through their Twitter account. For Twitter, I would set up the article so that it’s similar to a news headline feed with links to the full article (if necessary) posted on your website or blog. This helps increase traffic and greatly increases your search optimization.
- Include general connection links that are visual icon-based for users to link to you via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and your blog.
- Use the “addthis” component so your members or users can forward-post or recommend the information to their friends on social sites and blogs. Again, this increases your SEO and solidifies professional credibility in your industry.
There are so many different ways to include social media into an email marketing campaign. I would take a look at your customer/opt-in database, determine how they would like to receive information through an emailed survey, then make those venues available to them. And above all, live up to their expectations! There’s nothing worse than a company that doesn’t listen to their customers.
As Social media remains a strong communications tool among the Millennium’s, Gen Y’s and Gen X’s of our world society, Businesses are using social media to build and maintain relationships with existing and new prospects. According to eMarketer.com, BtoB interactive marketing spending is shifting, making the traditional means of communicating via phone, email, direct mail, and company website is just not enough.
I believe that online multimedia/video, social media (particularly LinkedIn), and SEO/SEM will become the staple of any solid BtoB sales and marketing effort. Email marketing will become an essential integrated component to those efforts moving forward.
Women are becoming more brand engaged
Several days ago, e-Marketer posted an interesting study that verifies female domination in purchasing decisions throughout the e-commerce landscape and beyond. Women want more targeted offers from brands they trust.
Since the inception of social media giants like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, everyone is yearning for trusted brands with discounts, and they are perfect online tools to start utilizing right now. It’s a fact that more women use social media than men, and according to this study, more women are looking for a brand that speaks to them in the voice of savings—even more now than ever in today’s economic conditions!
I’ve said it a million times and will continue to do so, “Your brand should always market to targets that have buying power, and women usually make most of the household purchasing decisions in the consumer products and services market place. So why not take advantage (in a good way) of that consumer.”
Given this study, deploy social tools in conjunction with SEO techniques to foster consumer education, product/service value and customer retention. And remember, if you need any assistance on how to integrate a social media plan into your next marketing campaign, contact me via email or give me a call.
Worth a look. Nothing beats the power of video in digital space marketing! They are really tapping into the service, quality and free shipping promo in this series of commercial spots. The phone conversations are actual recorded Zappos service department calls making the message so much more unique and powerful than some may give credit!
Zappos is also running these spots in the most aggressive viral marketing from Cable TV to YouTube, Facebook and the Facebook game App space too.
e-Marketer just released a joint study of how the infusion of social advocacy components to a target’s group of friends nets bigger brand results. As expected, the joint study performed by Nielson and Facebook found significant increases in ad recall, awareness and purchase intent. The day of the successful click-through ad is nearing it’s plateau.
This proves that making a successful brand connection must have social components built into it’s structure in order to see optimal results. Brand building has always been about trust—connecting in the most intimate of ways so that the customer sees your product or service as one that offers that one “thing” that no one else can match. We’re witnessing the rise of the “one-to-one connection.” Kind of like the one you get when you approach a sales associate or cashier at a brick and mortar.
Study released several weeks ago by InSites Consulting reveals that most product and service information sought after about a brand on a social networking source is by other consumers at 38%. This is seconded by the brand host itself at 32%, then journalists at 7%, then marketers at 3%, and other brands at 1%.
I always consult my clients on the importance of branding as a wide scale and ongoing program rather than a temporary brand boost because the budget is not available. That’s like starting a business and saying, “Well…there’s just not enough left in the budget to sell our products and services so we’ll have to wait for the customers to come to us.” The brand for so many years has almost always been a coveted and nurtured beast that was something you worked hard to grow and maintain so that one day it will achieve CocaCola status—one of the most purest and successful brands know by most consumers throughout the world today.
With social media tools and mobile technologies, that thinking seems to be changing. Too many companies want to take the easy way out—branding through social media venues and other free or cheap methods of building their brands. Although these are all excellent and viable ways to market your brand, services and/or products, company leadership and marketers alike tend to forget some of the foundation that makes memorable brands…unforgettable.
Let’s now look at how we can better use social media using what I like to call the Integrated Marketing Mix. Consumers are always attracted or actively searching for quality, service, accessibility and stability when shopping for mid to large scale purchases. So we’ll use this variable for my marketing plan knowing targets change pending other variables. Assuming the target is usually internet literate, the plan would be to drive them to a landing page or web page which will then entice them to react—it could be to purchase a product, coax them into divulging information to win a prize, or just to build brand loyalty.
Before we begin, I would suggest internally and externally optimizing the main website and/or landing page for successful search results before beginning any campaign. And that optimization should be specific to the message of the new marketing/branding campaign. Also, build in analytical code whether from Google Analytics or another source to measure results. That’s extremely critical and often forgotten or done poorly and will hurt campaign adjustments costing more than your budget can afford.
Next, look at the top three social tools: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (for starters). Ask yourself, “Which tool are my customers likely using the most or would use over others given the type of product and customer demographics served. If your customer base is BtoB, then use LinkedIn and Twitter more over Facebook. In most cases, the use of Facebook is more applicable to consumer-based product and service marketing. Facebook offers great features like tab customization, app capabilities, Facebook Ads at unbeatable targeted rates, and other fan notification, event scheduling, and website feed integration.
Find ways to connect to and from your website and the social media tools you’re using. You can connect via social live feeds and links. Social tools and living and breathing apparatuses—use their capabilities to build and communicate to your fan base, and always make sure you have the infrastructure to manage and maintain your followers. When using Facebook, you should communicate at least once or twice a week. When using Twitter, always tweet at least once a day as it is a live IM system of communication.
Then, integrate an email capture and response system into your social media and website accounts. Email marketing is a lucrative and growing means of communicating to your interested followers. It’s brand customizable to the max! And the message goes right to the target’s inbox—an opted-in captive audience with the potential of further segmentation. Incorporate video links and podcasts or get them to sign up to receive a white paper for download. You can also use email to remedy shopping cart abandonment…I have many techniques and customized solutions that will help you market to your BtoB or BtoC segments! Contact me for more info.
You’ll also want to integrate targeted online banner ads to be posted on specific websites that promote your industry or product segment. In conjunction with banner ads, I would make sure to include purchasing GoogleAds which are pay-per-click ads found in search results. That will bolster your SEO even further.
Finally, integrate print into the marketing mix. The look and feel of a well chosen paper with superb graphics and messaging just can’t be beat, and digital printing makes lower print runs (500-1000) more affordable than ever. Brochures, direct mail, personalized stationery still have impact-full results. And you can still communicate to people that your on Facebook, Twitter or wherever! Just because it’s print doesn’t mean you can’t promote online tools.
My point is that social media is not the only way to build your brand or market your products and services. It’s another great cost-effective tool—part of our marketing toolbox. But unlike the other marketing tools, social media can make you as quickly as it can break you! That’s why it’s important to do it right the first time and maintain it as an ongoing effort to communicating with customers. After all, would you pick up the phone once for a customer never to be there to pick it up again?
We are creating a holistic experience for the consumer—a universe where only OUR brand exists and if they go elsewhere, they will experience something…else.
Here is an example of a fun, addicting Facebook app game from Playfish. They have developed a number of games for Facebook and continue to be the leader in Facebook gaming according to their app. stats.
The graphics are simple and gameplay sleek in the sense that they designed the bowling interaction after the likes of a Wii experience. Playfish has also incorporated Facebook ID identifiers throughout including other Playfish games you have played for quick reference, fan challenging, weekly, monthly and all-time score tracking.
They have also integrated the classic friend invite and email capture techniques. It’s really the marketer’s dream—it posses all the elements of the perfect holistic brand experience; visuals, hand-eye coordinated interaction, forum, instant support, easy access to other Playfish branded games in case you get too frustrated, and it even pays for itself through randomly played interactive commercials (which can be annoying at times.)
This is a certainly a good one to check out on Facebook and it’s free! I will be writing more about the manny other games that are entering the Facebook-scape as I’m aware that there are thousands, and only about 5% rank as most clicked and played.
