by admin | Oct 20, 2011 | Blog, Strategy
Social Media is all the rage, it is generating buzz online and in traditional media and every man and his canine is either a self-proclaimed “guru” or is ready to hand over their hard earned dollars to someone that claims to be one!
It wasn’t too long ago that we went through the same experience with websites and everyone who was able to “get you on the first page of Google” – oh wait that is still happening today! Sarcasm aside here are some facts and recommendations that will assist you in making sense of what to do next!
DISCOVER THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT REASONS TO GET EXCITED ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA
There is a lot to be excited about, and most small business owners, and professional services firms are getting in on the action; setting up Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter profiles and forming connections on LinkedIn.
Much of the excitement however is based on the fallacy that Social Media is free and easy, neither of which is true. However there is much to get excited about. Marketers who have been using Social Media have achieved some great results* for their brands:
- Increased Exposure – 85%
- Increased Traffic – 63%
- Qualified Leads – 52%
- Closing Business – 48%
*Ref: 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report – www.socialexaminer.com
Here are some more statistics that should make you excited if you are an SME business owner or a marketer working in the SME space…THE OPPORTUNITY is greater than your wildest dreams:
1. Between 40-65% of Australian SME’s still do not have a website.
The stats vary drastically depending on which research you subscribe to, however one can safely say that at least 50% still don’t have a web presence. An out of the 50% that are now online at least 90% have a website that is:
So just by having a professionally designed website that does the above you will be in the top 5% of your industry segment!
Unfortunately in 95% of cases engaging with a “professional web design agency” will not solve many of the challenges above – for this you will need to work with a marketing specialist that assist you in answering these questions. Start by downloading qubePartners Check and you will see what we mean!
2. Almost 25% of Australia’s full-time workforce now has a LinkedIn profile and almost 11% of this 2 million-membership figure, reached this week, are small business owners.
This means that 89% do not have a profile. As someone that looks at hundreds of LinkedIn profiles every day and runs both free and paid “The Art & Science of LinkedIn” workshops on LinkedIn, the 11% who are on LinkedIn do not have profiles that are optimised to “doing business” online! To see how you can use LinkedIn to find, attract and retain customers, register for our Free 1 Hour Workshop
3. This week The Age Small Business ran another article “Social Media for Small Business:
Where to Start – what was amazing about it was the Comments by the readers and the result of the Survey, which highlight that many of the readers (professional white collar professionals and small business owners) still don’t understand how Social Media fits into their Marketing landscape and hence do not see the benefits! Another massive opportunity for those that gain this understanding now – ahead of their peers and competitors!
by admin | Oct 13, 2011 | Blog, Content, Strategy
You are not reading the review about the latest marvel of German engineering as it glides through some secret track testing location in Stuttgart! I’m talking about utilising points of view to propel your business into top gear with better content strategy online and more results driven copywriting for your marketing collateral, blog, website, social media, etc.
1st Person Narrative:
The story is relayed by a narrator who is also a character within the story, so that the narrator reveals the plot by referring to this viewpoint character as “I” (or, when plural, “we”).
This point of view needs to be used very sparingly in marketing, as it takes the reader or the message recipient’s focus away from themselves and we all know that station “W.I.F.M – What’s In It For Me” is the only one that the audience listens to.
2nd Person Narrative:
Probably the rarest mode in literature (though quite common in song lyrics) is the second-person narrative mode, in which the narrator refers to one of the characters as “you”, therefore making the audience member feel as if he or she is a character within the story. Every good advertisement, PR story, blog entry, sales letter, email, etc takes us on a journey, it tells a story, no matter how short it is, it is interesting enough to engage us.
Second person narrative is the most useful and proven method of engaging with your audience and influencing them through the written word positively to: buy your product, perceive you differently, take action, vote, etc
Unfortunately most authors of SME marketing materials, do not utilise copywriting in a scientific manner and do not treat it as multiplied salesmanship!
The “we’s” on the average website outnumber the “you’s” at a ratio of at least 2 : 1, and show, in a subconscious way, that an internal focus, rather than being customer focused.
On the other hand if you look at work by customer focused marketers, you will find their copywriting utilising “you v we” ratios of closer to 3 : 1 in favour of “you”.
3rd Person Narrative:
Third-person narration provides the greatest flexibility to the author and thus is the most commonly used narrative mode in literature. In the third-person narrative mode, each and every character is referred to by the narrator as “he”, “she”, “it”, or “they”, but never as “I” or “we” (first-person), or “you” (second-person). In third-person narrative, it is necessary that the narrator be merely an unspecified entity or uninvolved person that conveys the story, but not a character of any kind within the story being told.
This is the preferred point of view of the bigger ‘corporate’ organisations. Unfortunately, in many cases, the customer or prospect walks away from the experience with this big brand feeling as if they are a “number and not a member!”
Third person is however useful when you need to:
– convey a more authoritative tone
– sound more objective than first or second person writing.
Although third person is the language we’re used to reading in our daily media, third person writing is also more distant, which is a disadvantage if you want to engage your reader.
Reminder:
As we all know, marketing success comes from adopting a customer centric point of view; what we all sometimes forget is that it is important to communicate this point of view, after all if you don’t illustrate this to your customers, they simply won’t know. Perception is Reality.
Are you connecting with your customers? Call the Marketing Network and see how we can improve the perceptions your customers and prospects have about your business.
by admin | Oct 4, 2011 | Blog, Promotion, Strategy
According to a study by research company Millward Brown, slogan or brand positioning statement usage in advertising has been declining over the last 20 years.
The study found that slogans make a difference in advertisements, and generate more interest from the target audience. The Knowledge Point study, found that two-thirds of all ads actually included slogans.
Ads with slogans that part are of a jingle received higher enjoyment while slogans that have been used before also enjoyed better branding, confirming the importance of consistency and repetition.
The study provided the following advice to marketers and their brands:
- Positioning Statements that are most likely to be remembered are included in a jingle.
- Positioning Statements should be relevant and meaningful to the brand, its benefits or its history
- Positioning Statements used to make sense of the whole communication are memorable because they bring about a resolution to the “question” being asked
- Positioning Statements slogans that use rhyme or alliteration to associate with the brand are more easily remembered
- Positioning Statements that evoke memorable images or stimulate thinking have more staying power
- Distinct Positioning Statements, whether they contains an unusual word or are used in an unfamiliar context, were also found to be effective.
by admin | Mar 22, 2011 | Blog, Strategy
If we accept the notion by the grandfather of modern management, Peter Drucker, that “Business is about two things and two things only, innovation and marketing” and that people are in fact our greatest assets, then it would make perfect sense to deduce that your company’s marketing consultants are your most important and valuable assets. So much for theory, the stark reality of marketing as a discipline and a profession in the small business arena is quiet different.
Why is it so? Because unfortunately, for most small and medium sized businesses, marketing is an expense and not an investment. Most small business owners do not understand the meaning of marketing or branding let alone have any basic understanding of advertising principles to effectively and efficiently reach their target audience. Hence much of the small business marketing efforts are wasted and as proof all you have to do is to open your local paper, look into your mailbox or jump online and that’s just in the consumer space, the business to business and professional categories are even worse!
But this is not another article pointing out the shortcomings of marketing by small business owners. We’ll focus on those entrepreneurs who understand the importance of marketing for the success of their business. The 8% (PWC survey “Private Business Barometer IV”) who didn’t nominate the slashing of their marketing budget as a coping strategy during the Global Financial Crisis; the 8% who know their history and understand the importance of maintaining or even increasing marketing investment in a weak economy. They know that competitors tend to cut spending during a recession thus creating opportunities and that maintaining promotional spend during tough economic times will sustain or even grow their market share.
Yes, we are talking to you, you the minority who carry the hope of all small business owners and it is for you, that we write this guide on how to get the most out of your marketing resources – your human marketing resources.
You who would never dream of appointing your personal assistant to the position of Marketing Coordinator or Manager! You would never promote an engineering professional to the position of Marketing Director or make the HR person responsible for marketing your professional services firm! Sounds crazy right? No-one in their right mind, with any understanding of the marketing profession (noun, a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science) would ever do this? Unfortunately it happens every day, so we won’t waste precious space on the CEO’s, MD’s, GM’s and business owners who allow this to occur. We’ll focus on those who understand and appreciate the importance of professional marketing in their business, where maybe our message and advice will do some good and not fall on deaf ears.
So you have come to a realisation, a point in your business when you recognise, unlike 92% of your small business counterparts, that most people couldn’t walk in off the street and run your business, so you do not expect to somehow be an expert when it comes to marketing.
So, where to from here? You have 2 choices; to outsource your marketing services or employ a marketing professional.
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by admin | Feb 23, 2011 | Blog, Strategy
“Making the simple complicated is commonplace, making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity”
– Charles Mingus, Jazz Musician
by admin | Feb 22, 2011 | Blog, Strategy
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak”
– Hans Hoffman – Artist
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