Posts Tagged ‘integration’
Marking Myths. Social Media Hype. Bogus Business Beliefs.
It all adds up to one thing – preconceived notions that can take you for a ride going the wrong way.
As marketers, we know that repeat messaging can make its mark. But what we can often miss is the fact it can make its mark on us! So when we repeatedly hear things like “You have to do this” or “Everyone has X,” you simply start to believe it. The worst part is, the decision to believe it is not often made-its just a gradual process that slowly invades your consciousness and starts driving your actions. Sometimes something happens that challenges those beliefs and you realized you’ve been carrying this weight around without your knowledge.
But we recommend you try to take a more proactive approach:
- Pay attention to when you feel yourself shifting into autopilot and pull out your inner 3 year old; ask “why? why? why?” until you get to the answer you want.
- Listen when others question your beliefs. You may not agree with what that person has to say, but you may learn something along the way.
- And most importantly, open yourself to learning something new-and try to do it without making an immediate judgement. Read new resources. Attend unusual seminars. Debate an issue with someone outside your field.
We guarantee as you shake loose old beliefs, you will establish conscious, well-informed ones.
“For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.” ~Author Unknown
And never is that more true than when preparing for a marketing launch of any type! You already know proper traditional and social marketing is key, but this week we want to delve more into the crucial element of timing to make this happen!
3 Savvy Tips for Timing an Effective Launch
1. Give yourself time – and then add time to that! – Why? Because nothing ever goes as planned. But you can combat that by building in a cushion to your production schedule at each major milestone. So the next time your designer is out sick, your IT person is battling a virus, or Twitter is showing the fail whale for days on end, you are still in good shape!
2. Pick Your Launch Day with Care – While all issues can’t be anticipated, there are some good rules of thumb to follow – carefully plan around holidays and avoid major tech or political announcements. You’d hate to lose your limelight to something you could have avoided, so check your calendars!
3. Know Your Customers – Most people know their customers well enough to know when they think about your company. Perhaps it’s a Monday in the afternoon, or as they prep for the weekend plans on Thursday after work. Make sure your launch date resonates with your goals, your customer usage, and has real impact!
Of course, not all things can be anticipated. But with a little planning and consideration for your launch, you should be in pretty good shape!
Want some help launching your marketing strategy or campaign? Let us know! info@thecollectivesavvy.com
Seasonal marketing, as we’ve discussed, requires a lot of preparation. But one point that often gets skipped is virtual preparation – Spring Cleaning if you will – no matter what time of year! Sprucing up your virtual sites can go a long way in making your company seem polished, organized, and ready to go for the seasonal market time of choice.
3 Savvy Virtual Seasonal Marketing Techniques to Consider
1. Spruce up Your Seasonal Marketing Materials Online - Do you use the same ad year after year? Are you sure it still resonates (if it ever did) with your clients? Do your graphic images match your seasonal campaign? Think about the message you are sending vs. the one you would like to appear and prepare to launch it in time with your seasonal campaign.
2. Specify Seasonal Keywords - When was the last time you fine-tuned your website to focus on certain keywords or phrases – especially holiday or seasonal related ones? Now is the time! Think about the words or phrases folks are likely to search and then add them to your mix. Ta-dah! You just helped yourself move up the SEO food chain.
3. Spotlight Your Seasonal Promotion – Is your seasonal promotion front and center on your webpage, virtual media sites, or online shopping cart? Many folks forget to make their seasonal promotion prominent, which defeats the purpose of your seasonal marketing efforts. So let it shine! Give it the attention it so deserves.
Seasonal marketing can be a great chance to boost sales. Prepare now for profit later! Need help? Let us know! info@thecollectivesavvy.com.
Facebook. The wonder of social media wonders.
The company bent on taking Google down a peg or two.
The place you play Farmville, Mafia Wars, or some such game, and share random comments with friends.
Or, your next social media marketing platform!
Seriously. Many folks under-appreciate what Facebook can do for a marketing plan. So often we hear “I built a company Facebook page…Now what?” That’s because most folks are so close to the things they HAVE to get done, they forget to plan for the things they WANT to get done. So here are some simple strategies to integrate your Facebook marketing efforts….
8 Savvy Steps to Integrating Your Facebook Marketing
1. Gather all the materials you will need for developing your Facebook page. Get your profile image and any custom tab graphics completed in advance. (Not sure where to go to do that? The Collective Savvy can help you out! (info@thecollectivesavvy.com)
2. Take the Time to Set Up your Page - We recommend setting the bulk of your page up at once. It is simply easier to finish that way because you can go through the steps methodically. Make sure to chose the proper page type (i.e. read the options Facebook gives you!) and think through the sub-options – are you a restaurant, a brick and mortar store, a service, etc.?
3. Make sure you take advantage of the Facebook page template - Incorporate your other online sites in a way that is easily visible to folks visiting your pages. Post photos related to your brand to liven things up. Pictures of staff, materials, etc., can really personalize the brand to your customers. Maximize the template the best way you know how!
4. Set up your customized tabs - Static FBML is a great thing and allows you to do some customization to your tabs – videos, links, etc. Figure out what you want to expose folks to that may be complimentary to your other marketing efforts and reinforce a call to action.
5. Connect to your other social media sites - There are tons of apps out there that allow you to link to other sites. Maximize, maximize, maximize! This can’t be stressed enough because it will save you so much time and energy while reaching a variety of folks in the manner in which they prefer to receive it. Link to Twitter, YouTube, etc.
6. Post your site links on your traditional marketing materials – Posters, brochures, signage, advertising, etc., are all great places to note that you have social media accounts that customers can access. Then on your social media sites be sure to refer to your print materials. Remember, don’t post the same thing everywhere, but post things that compliment one another!
7. Use Facebook advertising – Facebook offers affordable and highly targeted advertising. Pick a great graphic that goes with your look, come up with a brief and effective message, determine where you want folks to go if they click on your ad, set your daily limit, and there you go!
8. Plan your posts - You can be like me and wing it. Or you can be like one of our clients and pre-plan your posts to coincide with in-store events, advertising, etc. Really the choice is yours. But make sure you think it through!
Want to learn more about Facebook in general for your marketing efforts? Check out:
- www.facebook.com/facebook
- www.facebook.com/advertising
- www.facebook.com/facebookpages
Got questions about Facebook or other social media activities?
Ask The Savvy Girls your marketing or social media questions! Those savvy ladies can be found at www.facebook.com/thesavvygirls or www.twitter.com/thesavvygirls.
This week we are tackling the broad overview of social media integration into your marketing efforts. Many people seem to see social media as its own thing and not a blended part of an overall marketing mix. <”ANH!” goes the buzzer.>
In order to be effective, social media needs to be a strategic, well-thought out part of your marketing efforts. Take the time to do the research, the planning and the implementation CORRECTLY and in the long run, you will save time, energy and drive more results. Ta-dah! Success!
Ok, ok, ok… maybe there is more to it than that. Integration strategy for social media has multiple levels of implementation. This week, we are focusing on an overall strategy and in the next few weeks we’ll tackle individual social media sites you can leverage.
5 Savvy Steps to Social Media Marketing Integration
1. Determine where social media fit into your overall marketing plan – Is it first priority? Secondary? Just a small line item in comparison to the rest of your efforts?
2. Determine what you want integrated and the messaging related to it – Is it overall brand awareness? A particular campaign? A sales only strategy? A cause marketing effort?
3. Determine how you want it integrated – Video? Messaging? Photos? Blog posts? What are you going to do to make sure your messaging comes across the way you want it and still be interesting and relevant?
4. Determine how you want the sites promoted – Does your print material refer to your social media sites? Do your sites cross reference one another or your “hard” stuff?
5. Determine how you will handle moving forward – Social media seems to change daily and when you are doing other things, it can be hard to keep up! How will you explore new options to integrate into “old” options? Designate time each week to research? Deal with it as you have time? Or plan for a monthly review?
We can help you with your marketing integration. But if you are looking for other resources to learn about it online, check out these great articles:
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-integration-big-theme-for-2010/#more-1894
http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/social-media-integration/
Got questions about Facebook or other social media activities? Ask The Savvy Girls your marketing or social media questions! Those savvy ladies can be found at www.facebook.com/thesavvygirls or www.twitter.com/thesavvygirls.
Got a comment? Leave a comment! We love to get feedback.
Yay! This month’s theme is one of my favorites: Marketing Integration! Even before I had heard the term “marketing integration” coined, I was preaching to co-workers on this topic. Afterall, everything you post sends a message, every message builds your brand, and if you want everyone to view your brand a particular way… well, it’s obvious that integration is key!
So this week I am going to talk about marketing integration overall, with the next few posts for this month really getting into the nitty-gritty of integrating your social media + marketing activities. But first, I’m nailing down the technical description of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC).
IMC is ” a process for managing the customer relationships that drive brand value” (IMC Using Advertising & Promotion to Build Brands)
Now, what does that REALLY mean?
According to Merriam Webster, integration is “to form, coordinate, or blend into a functioning or unified whole.”
It basically means instituting a strategy of internal and external marketing integration so that everyone understands the processes, methods, and goals for achieving brand success (how that is defined differs from company to company!). Without internal understanding, you certainly won’t have external understanding, and without that you’ll get nowhere.
5 Savvy Things to Know About Marketing Integration:
1. Integration is more than just visible blending. Match your website to your newsletter, your Twitter to your Facebook, your advertising to your sponsorship materials, etc. While all of that is extremely important, true integration is both broader and deeper than visible similarities.
2. Integration entails cross-functionality. This means that more than just your marketing team is involved. After all, if your branding is to carry throughout all elements of a business, it’s easier to achieve when you have representatives from customer service, sales, etc., all contributing to the team effort!
3. Integration means touching all of your stakeholders. After you have worked on your internal components, move to the external-vendors, customers, etc. Integration doesn’t stop just with the person who buys your product!
4. Integration can involve strong data mining. If you have ever needed to build a list for marketing outreach, you have probably done some data mining. And as you may have figured out, data mining can be critical in reaching the right folks with the right message to drive sales and awareness. So make sure you make time to data mine!
5. Integration means more than just posting matching messages. It means posting the right message(s) in the right place(s) at the right time(s). Think about the power of that! If you have to touch folks 7 times to drive action, strategic timing and location are essential to make it happen!
So that, my friends, is integrated marketing in a (very small) nutshell.
Want more sites to look at on this topic? Enjoy below!
Graphic design work is an essential part of the marketing process. Not sure about that? Think about websites, printed materials, or e-newsletters you’ve seen in the past. You know what “looked good” and what “didn’t” – right?
You know what I am talking about – websites that are so “old” that you forgot sites could even look that way. E-newsletters that are nothing but text and tiring on the eyes. Or printed materials that look like they were created in an old Word Doc template!
Part of planning for strong marketing integration is ensuring you have a great graphic design team in place. And almost equally as important, that you can provide direction on the design work. After all, contrary to popular belief, graphic designers are not mind readers!
Here are some things to think about when getting your graphic design planning in place:
1. What will be your process for getting graphic design work done in a timely and satisfactory fashion?
Do you have a designer on staff? Or on call? Or on contract? Or do you even have access to one at all?
Try to work with the same person/team on an ongoing basis. This allows for branding integration, image consistency, and allows you to develop a “system” that works for you!
2. How will idea sharing occur?
You have to provide direction to your graphic designer(s). This means you need to articulate your vision. How will you do this? Through a creative brief? Fill out a form? Have a meet-and-debate kind of approach?
Figure out a system to work with at the start of the process. This will ensure things are likely to go a bit more smoothly through the graphic design process if everyone understands how it will happen!
3. Have you thought about your integration process?
Clearly consistent, integrated branding must carry through all aspects of your marketing designs. That is a no-brainer (or at least it should be!). But have you discussed with your designer what things may need to actually be designed?
Flyers, business cards, stationery – those are pretty standard. But what about profile images, twitter backgrounds, or Facebook Ads? Make sure your designer knows what the expectations are so that planning for sizes, looks, etc. can happen well in advance.
4. What is the review process?
The review process can be greatly reduced if your homework is done up front. But regardless, designs notoriously go through a variety of revisions depending on how well the vision is articulated, how the vision is “heard” and the variety of options produced by the designer. Either way, everyone has to establish a review process.
Do you need to run designs past an approval team? Does the designer need a week or more lead time on changes? How are revision comments shared? These are all things that should be discussed well in advance.
5. Handle your designers with care!
Designers work hard. They often pick up the slack when projects are running behind. They have to put a visual to an idea. The images they produce help build your brand in the mind of your consumers.
So give them some love. And at a minimum, a huge thank you! Go ahead – they deserve it!
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