by admin | Sep 22, 2014 | Blog, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Training
LinkedIn, is the most exciting of all social media and one that is not being used to anywhere near its potential by 95% of users.
In fact it is the greatest Personal Branding, PR and Business Development Tool for B2B and Professional Services since…EVER!
With LinkedIn you can:
- Take control and promote your personal and company brand
- Promote all of your online marketing assets from one central location
- Be proactive in the way you network
- Headhunt, recruit and be headhunted
- Develop new business and maintain / improve existing relationships, generate leads and accelerate sales
- Advertise – reach an exclusive, well educated and highest income demographic online, with laser sharp accuracy
- Ask for advice, the ultimate in ‘crowdsourcing’ from those best qualified professionals
- Find experts and partners
- Increase your personal productivity
- Conduct extensive research on industry trends, consumer opinions, companies and individuals
- Conduct reference checks
and much more!
For a Free and No Obligation Discussion about your specific needs contact us today.
by admin | Aug 23, 2013 | Blog, Strategy
DIY Marketing and Hiring Marketers to work In-house is one of the biggest mistakes being made by many Australian small businesses.
Marketing, like most business disciplines is changing rapidly due to advancements in technology, media fragmentation, and the resulting change in consumer wants and behavior.
Increasingly, there are more marketing specialists than ever before and the decreasing number of remaining marketing management generalists have to keep up their knowledge across an increasing array of new channels and tools whilst managing more complex campaigns and measuring and analyzing increasing reams of data on an ever decreasing budget.
Marketers are struggling with issues around Loyalty, CRM, Big Data, Search Engine Marketing (PPC, SEO, Display), Social Media, Content Marketing, PR, UX, etc. And each of these distinctively different disciplines has at least 3-4 different broad areas before one even drills down to specialities!
[download id=”41″ format=”3″] |
Outsourcing Your Marketing Infographic
Essential small business guide to hiring a marketing resource or outsourcing to a marketing agency |
Yet most SME Marketing Job Descriptions read like a mythical Marketing Super Hero, with marketing job descriptions for a Marketing Manager, Marketing Assistant or Marketing Coordinator encompassing vastly disparate skill sets.
Here’s a typical description for a Marketing Coordinator or Marketing Assistant in a company where this individual is the one and only marketing resource and hence a recipe for disaster, where he or she is expected to:
The simple truth is that these marketing superheroes do not exist except on resumes of individuals who need a job and tailor their CV’s to say so.
The sad reality is that most SME business owners do not know what they really need and end up “copy and pasting” from job descriptions they have seen. Due to the fact that most business owners are not professional marketers, they have no idea how to tell a ‘good’ applicant with the appropriate skills, in a few areas they are actually good at, from ‘bad ones’.
At the very best, the SME business owner hires someone who is good in 2 or 3 areas out of the 7 or 8 they have advertised for, effectively investing in a marketing project manager, who will still have to either engage outside marketing specialists or try to do it all themselves. The overall result, no matter which way you slice it, is at best mediocre.
The easiest way to understand this dire situation is to look at the marketing department of a bigger company, where the typical job description above would be performed by 2 or 3 different teams or at the very least 2 or 3 different individuals. Yet small business owners expect one person to perform miracles or worse still believe they can do it themselves.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are exceptions, success stories of entrepreneurs doing their own marketing and doing it brilliantly, but the key word is exceptions. In many cases these entrepreneurs have a marketing background and a real passion for marketing their business. This is not the case in general. Most people go into business to do what they love, being an accountant or an architect, a lawyer, a plumber, a gardener, etc.
According to the Mavenlink infographic Hire or Contract Your Marketing Department there are a number of key criteria that should steer you in the correct direction:
Here is a summary of the factors that would see you lean towards an in-house or hiring solution:
- Large marketing budget at your disposal
- Slow to steady rate of growth
- Very sensitive proprietary information
- Few Urgent Deadlines
- You prefer Day-to-Day supervision of all personnel versus a Results Only Work Environment
- You disagree that media communication has become too complicated.
qubePartners Outsourcing vs In-House Marketing Diagram summarizes the advantages marketing outsourcing can deliver to a small and medium sized enterprise.
[download id=”41″ format=”3″] |
Outsourcing Your Marketing Infographic
Essential small business guide to hiring a marketing resource or outsourcing to a marketing agency |
For a free and no-obligation assessment of your marketing needs don’t hesitate to call us or alternatively in the first instance you can have a look at the Marketing Check document in our Marketing Resources section.
by admin | Feb 24, 2013 | Blog
Think before you type – Social media can land you in Hot Water!
by Sharon Givoni
A recent legal stoush between two well-known Australian swimwear labels over photographs and comments posted on Facebook serves as an important reminder to people in business of the dangers of using social media when making comments about other businesses. What happened in the case?
Leah Madden is Principal of White Sands. She discovered what she thought to be a “rip off” of some items in her 2009 “Shipwrecked” swimwear collection. She posted an album on her Facebook page entitled “The most sincere form of flattery?”. The postings featured several side-by-side comparison shots of models wearing White Sands and Seafolly swimwear respectively and below the images Madden inserted descriptions such as: “White Sands 2009-Seafolly 2010”. She embellished the images with comments such as:
- “Seriously, almost an entire line-line ripoff of my Shipwrecked collection.”
- “I know, the buyer from ‘sunburn’ (who, as it turns out, works for seafolly) Came to my suite at RAFW and photographed every one of these styles.”
- “Ripping off is always going to happen, but sending in a dummy ‘buyer’ to get photos is super sneaky!”
The response
The Facebook statements were read by many people, and elicited quite a response. People said:
- “Nasty! Shame on ’em! Won’t be buying Seafolly. WHITESANDS all the way. X”
- “Seafolly own everything! Sunburn, miraclesuit and gottex and they used to own jets but sold it recently! And unfortunately they do rip off everyone, they have copied a design 2 chillies has been doing for years! A little frilly triangle, its so bad!”
- “Disgusting! How people look at themselves in the mirror is beyond me.”
Media Attention
Madden then sent emails to media outlets also using the same words “The most sincere form of flattery?” in the subject line of each email.
Responses from readers included
- “This sort of thing is happening ALL the time. Large corporations no longer have ‘designers’ but ‘product developers’ that source indie designs, copy and mass produce them.”
- “Yeah right Seafolly – you really expect us to believe this garbage?…”
What did Seafolly do? In response, Seafolly circulated a press release heavily denying the allegations of copying. It was able to show that it had already had the designs in the marketplace before White Sands. White Sands responded by stating that it had never specifically accused Seafolly of plagiarism.
However, from Seafolly’s perspective the allegation of copying was clearly implied. It needed to set the matter straight and it issued legal proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia. Seafolly alleged:
- Misleading and deceptive conduct (in relation to Madden’s emails to the press)
- Injurious falsehood (namely, that Madden’s comments and posts had caused damage to Seafolly’s reputation and thus economic loss) and
- Copyright infringement (as White Sands had reproduced Seafolly’s swimwear photos online without permission).
Madden argued that she had only expressed an “opinion” – not a statement of fact so it should have been alright. The judge disagreed. Madden also argued that she was not making the comments in “trade and commerce” so the misleading and deceptive provisions did not apply. Again, the judge disagreed as the setting was clearly in a competitive context. He found that Madden’s comments were “a serious assault on Seafolly’s business integrity”.
Seafolly’s CEO agreed (of course!). He commented that in “this day of internet, where things go viral” once things are released into the “public space, no amount of logical reasoning actually matters”. “…Once she put that up there, I was finished anyway… the damage had been done.”
No winners
Ultimately Seafolly succeeded in its arguments concerning misleading and deceptive conduct. White Sands was ordered by the court to pay Seafolly damages in the sum of $25,000 and Seafolly’s costs of the court application.
However, in reality, no-one really won. The public airing of their “catfight”, led to both companies attracting some level of negative publicity. One headline state: “Swimwear designer ‘malicious’ against rival” and, “Court slams small designer for falsely accusing bikini maker Seafolly of ripping her off.”
Tips for commenting in Social Media
- Think before you speak (or at least think before you type, especially when it comes to social media).
- Just because you do not expressly say something, if you imply it, that can be just as bad, legally speaking.
- Posting things on social media sites may be considered “in trade and commerce”, especially if you mention your competitors and could be deemed misleading.
Disclaimer – The contents of this article do not replace tailored legal advice
*Sharon Givoni is an intellectual property lawyer with 16 years and has clients across all industries.
by admin | Jan 24, 2013 | Blog, Content, Design, Promotion, Strategy
What are you going to do differently in 2013?
Checklist for New Year
The Mayans were wrong, we are all still here, your clients and prospects still need you, but
they are increasingly harder to communicate with; grabbing attention is more difficult and
keeping it is even harder.
Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is not only the definition of insanity but
it also means that today you will NOT get the same result, but one that is substantially worse
– you will be going backwards.
For your convenience we have prepared a summary of Hubspot’s 27-page Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2013 and one we have turned into a simple Marketing Action Plan Checklist.
1. Inbound Marketing (Get Found*, Convert, Analyse) will become more important and both
small and large enterprises are dedicating more of their budget to online / digital and away
from Outbound / Traditional Marketing.
*Get Found = Social Media+SEO+Blogs+PPC
CHECKLIST
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- Do you have a costed Marketing Strategy Plan for the year?
- Have you established your KPI’s, e.g.: Cost Per Lead, Cost Per Sale
- Are you being found by enough new prospects?
- Are you getting enough referrals?
- Do you have a Referral Strategy?
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2. Marketing Communication is moving away from Campaigns to Real Time Communication thanks to Social Media and immediacy of client expectations. Prospects are increasingly contacting / finding (Inbound Marketing) prospective suppliers / sellers and they want answers NOW! Technology will keep driving these changes with new widgets, gadgets, readers and scanners, RFID tags, and of course apps! Gamification will also grow as a marketing tool beyond product placement to improve the delivery of content in a more enjoyable way.
CHECKLIST
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- Do you have all of your Social Media profiles set up correctly; do they reflect your
company and personal brand?
- Do you know which Social Media channels to focus on?
- Are you interacting with prospects and customers via Social Media?
- Do you have a Content Marketing Plan so that you can be “active and successful” on Social Media?
- Have you personally or your company carved out a niche that you are known for?
- See how we deliver Content Marketing for our clients
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3. CRM and Unified View of the customer will become more and more important, and some
of the new systems are now integrating Social Media information for their client records.
ACTION
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- If you are thinking about these issues please give us a call. Choosing the CRM system
(or getting the most out of your existing one) is a minefield and we have access to a number
of world-class experts at qubePartners as well as our own team that can assist you.
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4. Mobile Optimisation of Websites will keep growing and become a must have channel for
many businesses.
ACTION
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- Pretty easy to do depending on what your current website has been built in. Give us a
call and we can provide answers very quickly.
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5. Social Media, Content Marketing and Off Page SEO will keep overlapping and merging
and On-Page SEO “tricks of the trade” will play a less important role. Social Search and User
Generated Content with Facebook’s and Google’s focus in this area will undoubtedly
make a big impact!
ACTION
|
- Start treating these practices not as separate channels, but as one part of holistic
process.
- Have a Content Marketing Plan for each of the channels and work out how they
should be integrated amongst each other and your website.
- Check out our website dedicated to LinkedIn Training and Consulting
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6. Smart or Dynamic Content (ala Amazon Recommended for You) will enable you and your
competitors to serve up highly personalised messages to the right audience at the right time.
CHECKLIST
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- Can you easily segment your database and get insights into the behavior of your
customers?
- Can your CRM, ERP, Email Marketing technology / software act on the insights?
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7. Story telling will become even more important as companies scramble to be seen more
human (than their competitors) and develop a trustworthy, approachable and caring brand
personality.
CHECKLIST
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- Do you have a powerful, unique brand with an interesting story to tell clients and
prospects?
- Are all your staff singing from the same hymnbook?
- Download our Brand Design Questionnaire from our Free Marketing Resources
Section (it’s the 4th document down the page) – knowing and acting on the answers in
this document should be the cornerstone of your marketing communications.
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“The advent of social media has meant that the world of separate internal and external
messaging has disappeared. If a customer talks to your Customer Service department, they
expect the same response they’d get if they talk to marketing, or sales, or engineering.
Creating a unified external face is critical. If you want to build long-term relationships,
you’ve got to have a consistent, human voice – coming from all levels of your organization.” –
NICK JOHNSON founder useful Social Media
8. Email will not die but become more personalised, relevant and targeted based on real time
data.
CHECKLIST
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- Are you communicating regularly with your database and is the marketing
communication tailored to different segments?
- Are they engaging with your content and offers?
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9. Content will remain King and more marketing teams and departments; small and large
businesses will invest into more quality content and attempt to make it go viral or at least
improve the chances of it being passed onto to a secondary audience. With falling production
prices and better and simpler technologies, we see Online Video as the ‘biggest and most
effective mover and shaker’ in Content Marketing. Most small businesses do not have a great
website, let alone reasonable video content, so this area will keep booming.
CHECKLIST
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- Do you have great content?
- Is it promoted sufficiently? No point creating more content if not enough people are
engaging with what you have!
- Check out our great Fixed Fee Marketing with Online Video Marketing Packages
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10. “Sites like Pinterest and Instagram prove that visual content is really worth 1,000 words
(or in instagram’s case, $1 billion). Infographics, photos, picture boards, video, and other forms of rich-media will increase over the coming years as humans look to digest more information faster than ever before.” – Hubspot Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2013, p.23.
CHECKLIST
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- Does your brand have a well developed visual palette?
- Do you have a suitable image library? Make sure this is part of your Content
Marketing Plan
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Wishing you a healthy and productive 2013. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you need any assistance in improving your marketing results.
qubePartners
by admin | Feb 9, 2012 | Blog, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Training
There are 3 types of people in business:
- Entrepreneurs
- Intrapreneurs
- Un-enterprising and all of them can benefit from LinkedIn, even the un-enterprising!
It’s the often overlooked social media channel of LinkedIn! Whilst it is Facebook and Twitter that get all the media attention, it is LinkedIn that leads with results.
Hubspot research shows LinkedIn being the equal leading Customer Acquisition Channel together with Company Blogs and the definitive leader in the B2B segment.
“LinkedIn is the largest professional social network online today with an astounding 135 million users and a targeted audience of business professionals. If you are a business professional and you do not have a powerful presence on LinkedIn, you are undoubtedly missing valuable opportunities to connect and grow your business.”
– Rebecca Corliss is marketing manager and leader of the social media marketing team at Hubspot.
“There is no other social networking site in which you have a greater chance of being able to interact with an influential decision maker due to the business- focused nature of the community. LinkedIn remains one of the best social networking sites to market your business-to-business (b2b) products and services because of this special demographic. even for business-to-consumer (B2C) companies, LinkedIn is important: not only because consumers are members of LinkedIn, but also because the network offers a great platform for finding distributors, agents, and strategic alliances.”
– Neal Schaffer, author of Windmill Networking
I used to refer to LinkedIn as “Facebook for Business”, but how wrong I was!
The first 2 points provide a major difference between LinkedIn and Facebook and hence give business people an amazing opportunity not available in any other media channel:
1. LinkedIn provides a meeting place where people expect to “do business”
2. LinkedIn leverages relationships by making connections visible
3. LinkedIn helps maintain personal relationships and build new ones.
4. LinkedIn provides a platform for the most effective form of Marketing – Word of Mouth
5. It can link all your Online Marketing Assets and essential Social Media Tools, e.g: Website, Blog, Slideshare (now incorporating Video), Twitter and Facebook.
With all of the new developments in LinkedIn, today it can assist you with:
- Promoting your personal brand
- Proactive Networking
- Checking References and Backgrounds
- Look for a Job, Seek and Hire Candidates and be better prepared for interviews
- Generate Leads and Accelerate Sales
- Ask for Advice from your own network as well as “Crowdsource”
- Find Experts and Partners
- Improve your Personal Productivity with all of the different LinkedIn tools, Widgets, and Apps.
- Research trends and industries, gather opinions by running pols as well as track company news.
Finally and most importantly, LinkedIn can provide you with the perfect and simple platform for a Referral System! Referrals are critical to success in business.
FACT
– 98% of Businesses rely on referrals to gain new business*
FACT
– 3% of businesses have a strategy for referrals*
REFERENCE:
*BNI – Business Network International
Benefits of a Referral System:
- Lower Marketing Costs
- Higher Revenues
- Prospects convert to Customers
- Better customer ‘behaviour’
- You can concentrate on your business
Please note that there is a large and important difference between Word of Mouth Advertising and a Referral System. Word of Mouth or ‘going viral’, usually happens by chance. We as marketers try as we might do not have control over a video or a game going viral, and more fail than succeed!
A Referral System, on the other hand is:
- Predictable
- Consistent and
- Repeatable!
LinkedIn can assist you in most of the critical steps of a typical Referral Process:
- Identifying Referrers / Influencers in your Network by listening and studying where opinions are being shared
- Providing them with a WOW experience (LinkedIn won’t help you there – you need to be great at what you do or deliver exceptional value through your products and services!)
- Stay Top of Mind
- Help them Help You – you need to educate your network how to refer to you
- You need to ask for Referrals and Introductions
- And you need to Recognise and Reward those that place their trust in you and refer to you!
LinkedIn or any other technology or media channel for that matter will not help you Stand Out and Be Noticed!
You need to give people a reason to talk about your products and services, and make it easier for that conversation to take place. You’ll need to be creative and wow prospects and not just with your message. Remember the old adage – “great advertising kills bad products faster”
As with all social media or marketing activities in general, the more you put into them the more you will get back in return. The more you care and share the more likely you are to benefit. Check out this latest Infographic http://mashable.com/2012/02/08/new-content-marketing-tactics/
To learn about our LinkedIn courses check out http://www.qubepartners.com/promotion-media/social-media/linkedin.
Get LinkedIn or become LockedOut!
For a Free and No Obligation Discussion about your specific needs contact us today.
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