Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

There’s something I love about watching sign twirlers. I’m not talking the long-suffering ones that appear to be a bored employee, humiliated to be stuck outside in some kind of mascot costume and horrified because they don’t know any cool sign twirling tricks. I’m talking the ones that draw the eye because they are rocking the house with their moves and ingenious twirling capabilities. And it occurred to me the other day we could all learn a few things from a good sign twirler:

1. Fake it until you make it – You can’t tell me that all of those rockin’ sign twirlers love their job when its 100 degrees outside or dropping a nice snowy mix. But you would never know they don’t love their jobs because they never show it.  They are outside enthusiastically tossing and twirling and on some level, it makes you as a potential customer stop and take notice. Your business could probably stand to approach marketing with that mentality, because if you can’t buy into it, neither can you customers.

2. Take time and listen to the music - Sign twirlers take this literally – probably because they can and its one way to beat off the boredom blues. But as a business person, you can take that statement figuratively or literally. Wouldn’t it be nice to take some moments of enjoyment out of whatever it is you are doing?

3. Infuse some energy – A good sign twirler always looks energized, alert and active – much like your business should! No one wants to do business with a sluggish organization, so show off the energy and enthusiasm you have for your work in order to get others to buy what you’re selling!

4. Create a new move - Sign twirlers don’t just shake their money maker (sign that is). They generally show off every dance move they know and ultimately, whatever new move comes to mind. Why? Because they don’t want to be like everyone else and neither should your business. So think about how to position yourself so you offer something no one else has! It’s one way to really stand out.

5. They have it, so they flaunt it – Sign twirlers dance, hop, skip, wave, flip, spin and in general show off their signage. They do it because its part of their job to draw attention to their client. You should do the same to draw attention to your business! Don’t be shy about telling people (in the appropriate manner of course), what you do and how you can help them. If they don’t know, they won’t buy…

Can you think of other ways sign twirlers could teach us a lesson or two? Leave a comment below!

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

We’ve had a lot of conversations with clients recently about what I like to call “Taming the Time Suck.” Like a lion on the loose, social media can be a fascinating thing to observe. Or play around in. Regardless of whether you do it for business or pleasure, social media can eat a ton of time if you don’t manage your efforts effectively.

While each day can be different – as well as each opportunity you may capitalize on – it’s important to designate the right time for the right projects.

5 Ways to Tame the Time Suck

1. Designate time to work on your social media projects. – This is especially important when developing or revamping your materials. Setting up, tweaking, etc., can be quite the time suck,  so make sure you plan for your social media activities. Go as far as to close your browser if you have to get other work done and then just open it up with you have time to monitor and manage.

2. Designate time each day to work on your accounts. – You will need time to manage and monitor your accounts. And you should adjust that time if you know your posts and activities relate to a prime media story, a seasonal promotion, or something equally as important to capitalize on.

3. Prioritize - Not everything has to be done each day or in every way. Are most of your customers YouTube watchers? Then spend more time there rather than on LinkedIn. Move things to the back burner as needed, but make sure you don’t embrace the empty storefront scenario – you still need to keep things active!

4. Be effective - It’s tempting to goof off: looking at fun links, playing games, or responding to friends’ posts. But treat your job like a job, and you’ll minimize the amount of time you are supposedly spending on social media for work.

5. Prepare – If you need assistance from other departments (such as graphic design work, customer service, etc.), make sure you are communicating with them in advance or as needed in order to handle your campaigns efficiently and effectively. Preparing properly can make a world of difference!

Have other tips for taming the time suck? Please post below!

One of the places many marketers fall down on the job is missing the chance to leverage current opportunities in preparation for future connections. We advocate that smart seasonal promotions should actually build your sales all year long. Integration of your marketing efforts – and collection of contact information – is essential to make this happen!

3 Savvy Ways to Collect Contact Information

1. Run a contest – Have people drop their business card into a unique bowl in the store for a chance to win or run an online contest through your website. Whatever you do, make sure that each of your marketing outlets (especially social media!) promotes this contest. The more interest, the more registrants. The more registrants, the more contact information you collect. The more you collect, the more opportunity you have to promote yourself moving forward for future promotions!

2. Ask for story or photo submittals – Pick a seasonal topic or a theme and then invite people to submit! Have them complete a form and then reward them with a coupon or special promotion related to your seasonal campaign. You do just a little work for potentially big results!

3. Ask people to opt in – Have a newsletter? Tell people. Run a Facebook page? Ask them to “like” it. Host a Twitter account? Invite them to follow. Make sure they know the opportunity is there by letting them know it’s there.

Once the seasonal campaign is over, follow up!

1. Thank people – Thank them for coming in, participating, etc. Do this quickly after the season is over, as customers often have short memories.

2. Referrals - If your system is sophisticated enough, make suggestions for future purchases based on past activity. If you don’t have an automated way to do that, use the past campaign as a springboard!

3. Reach out - Connect regularly to the folks who opted to receive your information. Easy rules of thumb:

- Twitter – At least once a day

- Facebook – At least 3 times a week

- Email newsletters – varies, from weekly to quarterly

- Blog posts – 1 time a month, at a minimum

Not sure where to get started? Drop us an email at info@thecollectivesavvy.com.

Seasonal marketing is often tied to a cause marketing effort. We recently defined seasonal marketing, but cause marketing hasn’t been heavily discussed in this blog. Essentially cause marketing is the combined effort of a for-profit business and a non-profit cause to raise mutual awareness, brand affiliation, and money. I suspect you see where this is going now…

Taking integration to the “next” step, a savvy marketer will often marry their seasonal promotion activities to a cause to tug on people’s heart strings (and purse strings!). This cause may be one that the company has supported over an extended period of time – such as Wendy’s support of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, or it may be a cause that ties well to the season, such as companies that support Toys for Tots over the holidays.

3 Savvy Ways Companies Can Blend Seasonal + Cause Marketing

1. Percentage of Sales Donations – Pick a seasonal marketing timeframe. Then pick a percentage of proceeds from your seasonal sales to go to your charity of choice. For example, seasonal Back to School promotions may work with charities such as your local PTA or  Back to School Clothing Drive.

2. In-Kind Donations – Cash donations are great and often appreciated, but sometimes a company is able to garner more support and resources around an in-kind donation. In-kind donations vary from charity to charity, but examples include fans for Project Cool in San Antonio, where fans are collected and distributed to the elderly in order to handle the intense summer heat. Your company may give these gifts outright and tie it to a seasonal promotion;  it may make the amount donated dependent on sales during a seasonal promotion; or it may serve as a collection site.

3. Time – Sometimes a company may offer a donation of time – either by bringing employees in for a project or recruiting volunteers for a project to help their pet cause.  Ever see Extreme Home Makeover? Look at the companies that donate time to the building of homes on that show – often showing up in force!

One thing we recommend companies keep in mind is that don’t lose focus on the fact that cause involvement is still ultimately an element of your business plan. Its great to do it, but you couldn’t do it if your business wasn’t in place. So make sure you are vocal about it.  It will have multiple levels of impact – on your company, your cause, and the way people perceive both.  So don’t leave the information out of your seasonal marketing efforts – imagine the impact you could have if others take up your cause as well!

This month we’ve been talking about integration and in today’s post I want to talk about simple integration tactics that often get skipped. These may sound too basic to be effective, but remember the last time you needed a company’s contact info and struggled to put your hands on it? It happens all the time! So here’s a quick checklist of things to get you going:

Savvy Integration Basics:

1. Signature lines -  Signature lines are pre-set deals. So put in ALL of your contact info in your signature line. I love being able to look at an email and find the phone, address, website, Facebook page, LinkedIn link, and more. I actually hate it when I get an email from a Blackberry or some other “business” phone and that info is not included.  So if you think it will help people connect with your business, list it all! After all,  you aren’t paying for it. Consider it free advertising space…

2. Business Cards - Same deal here. There is typically a lot of unused space on business cards. Put your contact info, your website, AND your social media accounts on there. You never know what appeals to the person who gets your card!

3. Print Collateral - Have you ever picked up a flyer and realized it didn’t have anything but a website listed, but you need to call the company? Or only a phone number is available, but no website? Or maybe all of the info is so buried in the document, you had trouble finding it at all? Think like a consumer! As you design your print material, what information would you want if you were your own customer? After all, you WANT people to contact you, right? Isn’t that how you make a sale?

4. Signage - There are a few key things I want to mention here. Make sure your content is large enough to read, in a font that is readable, and in a color that is visible! And always, always, always include one key way for your company to be contacted. Remember – keep it simple! Signage is typically viewed on the fly, so it needs to stand out and be memorable.

5. Cross Reference Your Sites – I have mentioned this in passing in a previous post, but it bears repeating. If you have multiple sites online, cross-reference them! Just because a customer comes across your website doesn’t mean that’s the way they prefer to receive their information. Make it easy for them to connect with you on their online touchpoint of choice! It helps them, which means it helps you. It’s worth the investment of time to make that happen.

These tactics are easy to implement and can make a world of difference in making your company appear accessible to your customers!

Have practical implementation questions? Like The Savvy Girls at www.facebook.com/thesavvygirls or follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/thesavvygirls!

Need help implementing these tactics? We’re happy to help!

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!

http://www.vitaminimc.com/

https://www.marketingprofs.com/login/join.asp?adref=rdblk&source=http://www.marketingprofs.com/3/roberts1.asp

http://jimc.medill.northwestern.edu/JIMCWebsite/site.htm

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!