You've seen it happening all around you…the speed-of-light
advancement of web-enabled technology designed to make every part
of our lives smarter, faster, convenient and connected. Heck, you
may even have gotten a Facebook friend request from your
grandmother! It can make your head spin as you try to keep pace
with rapid change while leveraging new technologies and online
media into your marketing strategies. Before you dump everything
you're already doing, read these guidelines to help you determine
what to keep, toss, or re-tool.
First, you need to keep in mind that traditional marketing is
not dead. (See
http://www.onsharp.com/blog/post/Why-traditional-marketing-is-not-dead-(or-dying)/ for
a reminder of a past blog conversation.) However, if you're not
taking advantage of electronic vehicles for spreading your message
and engaging with customers you're missing out on a powerful,
effective channel of communication. Your company won't dwindle and
die simply because you continue to use print, radio and other
traditional marketing channels. But, you could be falling short of
customer expectations by not reaching them in ways that are more
convenient to them, like Twitter, Facebook and email. (And, those
methods are often less expensive and easier to measure.)
Email Marketing
Rather than mailing newsletters or postcards, we've chosen to
send our event invitations and monthly newsletters through Constant Contact. The cost of the service is
significantly less than the traditional approach involving paper,
printing, preparation and postage. When you mail a newsletter or a
postcard, you have to hope it gets delivered to the right address,
routed to the right person, opened, and read. That's a tall order!
With electronic mailings, you can see who opened them, who clicked
on the links, and how much traffic was driven to your site. Email
marketing also makes it very easy to segment your customers. You
can sort lists by specific criteria, which makes it easier to
target specific segments of your audience. For example, we use our
services to group clients so they get more of the information they
want and less of what they don't want.
Search Engine Optimization
As you expand into electronic marketing strategies, it's
important to integrate your traditional (or "offline") and online
efforts. For example, if you're hoping to increase your sales
during the summer, you can mail a postcard that highlights your
best selling items and drives your customers to special web-based
offers. You also can optimize your web page to highlight those
best-selling products so when people conduct Internet searches,
your site is more likely to appear higher in the search results.
You can do this by ensuring the content on your web site contains
key words about the products and services you think people will
enter in search engines to find specific products. Keep in mind you
can use SEO (search engine optimization) to send more visitors to
your homepage as well as to specific pages within your site.
Search Engine Marketing
If you send postcards or other printed pieces to increase
awareness or promote specific items, search engine marketing (SEM)
is something you should consider. SEM allows you to target your
audience by several demographic elements. And, it's a pay-per-click
pricing model so you pay only when people click-through to your
site. Unlike a mailing where you pay upfront for design, paper,
printing and postage and can expect a very small response rate, you
don't pay until you get a response with SEM. One of our clients,
College Nannies and Tutors, use SEM as an alternative to expensive
postcard campaigns which can cost a few thousand dollars each and
drive very low response rates. Their SEM campaigns, on the other
hand, lead to three or more site visitors filling out inquiry forms
each month at a cost far less than mailings!
Social Media Marketing
According to Hitwise, Facebook was the most visited site in
2010. source More than likely, your
existing and prospective customers are using Facebook and other
social media sites like Twitter, Bebo, and LinkedIn. Facebook has
great tools to segment based on general demographics and other
profile information like interests and activities. You can narrow
to nearly one-on-one with social media marketing!
If you could reduce risk and cost while driving better results,
wouldn't you? Integrating your offline and online marketing efforts
can improve your campaigns and your business results. Many online
marketing efforts only require you pay when someone clicks on your
information. Other online efforts like SEO increase the
effectiveness of your offline campaigns. If you're already
integrating your campaigns, you're probably already seeing the
benefits. If you're not, you should take steps to get on
board.
We can help you catch up! Fill out the form here and our Online
Marketing Expert will contact you.