Planned Growth

How to Do Effective Social Media Marketing

Planned Growth — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:52:49 +0000

How to Do Effective Social Media Marketing

No business in its right mind would do away with opportunities to attract customers but they should know the right place to put their efforts to. One of the best ways to do marketing these days is online because not only is it effective, it is incredible cost-effective as well. Its effectively could get hampered when done improperly so it always helps to do some research before getting started. If you are considering getting started on a new social media marketing strategy or find that your current results are less than ideal, here are a few pointers that might help lead you to the right direction.

Branch out when you can afford to. This is not in the sense of being able to afford something monetarily but if your efforts are successful enough for you to get started on something else. Once you have the ball rolling on one method, it may be time to get to work on a new one. This way, you avoid any potential disasters brought on by change. In business, it is always a good idea to have a back up.
Concentrate your initial efforts on one or two platforms. While most people think that more is better, you may be diluting your best efforts by spreading your marketing efforts too thin. Do not be deterred by fears on missing out on a target market by not using this or that platform but narrow your choices down and get to work. Once you see something performing, you can focus all your energy on that instead of using several platforms that are barely doing anything.
Do some A/B or split testing. This will allow you to get some insight regarding the behavior of visitors on your site so you can optimize it to increase your conversion rate.
Make sure to follow up on your customers. More customers that visit your page are likely not to buy anything so when you neglect to find ways of finding them, imagine all the customers you have already lost. Entice them to leave their e-mail address by offering them something that may be of value and once you get their e-mail, you can make use of some e-mail marketing.
Make sure to monitor your returns. You may have rolled out a grand social media marketing strategy but if you do not track the results it brings, you are not doing yourself any favors. By keeping an eye out on your returns, you can see if you are losing money or making it. Make use of the many monitoring tools available and make sure you know where your efforts are going. Fox Business recommends the following: Hootsuite, Google Analytics, and Tweetdeck. Christina Warren of Mashable had this to say:

“Although ROI ≠ metrics, traditional web metrics like traffic counts, number of comments, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, etc. are an important component when calculating your ROI.The trick is to not rely solely on the numbers, but on what the numbers end up leading to. For instance, does your increase in website visitors correlate with higher sales? Are people that find your website from Twitter or Facebook then clicking on your product pages or going to the e-Commerce section of your site? That’s the sort of data you want to be able to look for.”

View the original article here.

Social Media Marketing For Businesses Differs From One Network To The Next

Planned Growth — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:46:03 +0000

Social Media Marketing For Businesses Differs From One Network To The Next

Many companies are asking themselves which is best for their own results.

Though Facebook is holding its top place well ahead in the social media marketing environment, Google+ recently overtook Twitter for the second place, causing many to wonder if positions will continue to change over the next little while.

It is also causing businesses to take a second look at Google+, which has been underestimated for a while.

Small businesses, especially, are beginning to discover that there are some considerable advantages to social media marketing using Google+ instead of Facebook, leading many to wonder whether there will be another change in power in the future. The EMSI vice president of media operations, Alex Hinojosa, said that Google+ is already performing far better for professional firms, small businesses, and entrepreneurs, than Facebook.

This is because social media marketing through Google+ is very compatible with SEO efforts.

According to Hinojosa, “I knew Google+ would attract a big following because it really lends itself to business uses and SEO.” He has been watching the exponential growth of the value of Google+ since its creation, but especially more recently.

A recent study by Global Web Index showed that December 2012 produced a massive growth in the number of users at Google’s social network. This was a spike that brought it to 343 million users around the world. An active number of members of that size presents a tremendous social media marketing opportunity for businesses of all sizes, particularly those that are smaller and have more limited budgets.

Today, it is estimated that about one quarter of the internet users around the world have a Google+ account. Facebook’s figure is still about twice that much, at 50 percent. Hinojosa explained that “Facebook continues to go through self-imposed changes that are seeing mixed responses from longtime users,” going on to say that “The new No. 2 has much, much more to offer than simply being an alternative to the big dog.”

As many users become increasingly frustrated with Facebook’s changes and other aggravations with that platform, the social media marketing opportunities elsewhere – especially at Google+, but still at Twitter, as well – continue to climb.

View the original article here.

The Importance of Social Media for Business

Planned Growth — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:21:18 +0000

The Importance of Social Media for Business

As we all know, in just a short time social media has almost completely changed the face of online marketing.

If your business has not yet taken advantage of this truly incredible channel, now is the time to do so. It’s extremely cost effective, easy-to-use and can put your product or service in front of hundreds of millions of potential customers.

Still not convinced? Here are some key reasons why you should be incorporating social media into your overall marketing program.

Benefits of Social Media for Business

More than a billion users are waiting for you. Social media has exploded in popularity worldwide, with a significant portion of the entire human population now making use of social sites. Check out these stats:
- Facebook: more than 800 million members
- YouTube: 800 million unique users a month
- Twitter: more than 400 million unique users a month
- LinkedIn: 150 million users
- Google+: 100 million users
- Pinterest: 10 million users
Social media is free. That’s right. Social media is entirely free to use. A few sites like LinkedIn offer premium paid services alongside their free service, but even that is rare. In general, the only direct cost in making use of social media for business is your own time and labor.
Your customers are there. While social media usage may be skewed slightly toward younger users, individuals across demographics are going social. For example, nearly half of Facebook’s user base is more than 45 years old. Whatever your target market, it’s on social media.
There are social networks for everyone. The demographics of social users change from network to network. Pinterest is overwhelmingly used by women with craft and design interests, while Google+ is generally for young, technologically-savvy users. LinkedIn is filled with those looking for business contacts.
Your competitors are already there. Even if your business isn’t active on social media, your competition almost certainly is. Do you really want to cede them the entire social media space?

Embracing social media for business offers huge potential for generating discussion about your products and services and, eventually, winning new customers. It’s free and carries very little downside.

The question really isn’t why should you be on social media? But why shouldn’t you?

View the original article here.

Basic Strategies for Small Businesses Getting Started in Mobile Marketing

Planned Growth — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:19:04 +0000

Basic Strategies for Small Businesses Getting Started in Mobile Marketing

Most small businesses know that word of mouth is the best marketing tool available, because it travels between family members and friends, the folks who consumers are most likely to trust. Some of the best strategies for small businesses involve ways to increase this friendly buzz via mobile marketing.

These days, people don’t often have a lot of time to chat in person. So word of mouth often means thoughts shared on the run by users of Internet-enabled smartphones or computer pads. It’s less obtrusive to email or text someone from the supermarket checkout line than it is to engage in a noisy telephone conversation.

Birth of a Smartphone World

As of 2012, worldwide sales of smartphones averaged roughly 4.6 per second, which exceeded the global birth rate of about 4.2 births per second. The Pew Internet Report also reported that 46 percent of American adults now have smartphones.

These statistics point to the increasing importance of mobile marketing — the art of reaching and selling to customers on the run via portable digital devices. Keys to unlocking business success through mobile marketing include:

seeking help from a mobile marketing company;
improving the configuration of your company website for the small screens of smartphones and computer pads; and
focusing on inexpensive yet consumer-friendly solutions such as regular emails.

Investing in Mobile Marketing Advice

For owners and employees in businesses with small staffs, it’s difficult to complete all the basic tasks necessary on any given day. Keeping up with marketing — especially when it requires knowledge of ever-changing computer technologies and social media – can be exasperating without the help of a mobile marketing company to help you

improve customer access to your website;
configure your website for easier use on small screens;
form a mobile plan of action; and
select cost-effective mobile marketing strategies.

Although hiring mobile marketing help is an addition to the budget, it a wise investment. Time magazine has reported that, once underway, mobile marketing makes it easier for small businesses to increase earnings. In fact, Time noted, 84 percent of small businesses that used mobile marketing in 2012 reported it increased their new business.

Improving the Look of Mobile Websites

A one-size-fits all website doesn’t translate well from desktop computer screen to smartphone or computer pad. If your website isn’t easy to navigate on smaller digital devices, then it isn’t mobile friendly.

It does little good to send out sales promotions to smartphones by email or app-related notifications leading back to a website that is difficult to read on a small screen. But once you clean up the look, it’s time to begin inviting lots of mobile users in to look at the goods. Email may be the best choice.

Choosing What Customers Like

When it comes to receiving and sharing ad information on smartphones, 322 participants in a 2012 survey said that they preferred sales emails versus texts and push notifications — alerts to special offers sent through apps to which consumers subscribe.

Perhaps this is because email has been around longer and is more familiar. Or possibly it is due to the quieter, less demanding pitch of email sales. However, even with email, customers in the survey said they usually open only one email a week from a seller. So although it is important to advertise via mobile technologies, small businesses should take care not to get in the consumer’s face.

View the original article here.

The Ultimate Complete Final Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet

Planned Growth — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:16:16 +0000

The Ultimate Complete Final Social Media Sizing Cheat Sheet

One of the challenges of keeping up with social media is to ensure that you have attractive and consistent branding across all of the various platforms. No sooner do you find the right size for Facebook than the same image changes on Google+ and you need to tweak your images again.

Doing the research to find all the right sizes was always a pain. Various sites had inconsistent (and even incorrect) information, making it difficult to know where to turn or who to trust.

Thankfully, LunaMetrics has stepped forward and volunteered to be the keeper of all such mundane information, providing social marketers with a single place to turn for all their sizing needs. Thank you, LunaMetrics!

View the original article here.

Email: What Your Customers Want

Planned Growth — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:12:49 +0000

Email: What Your Customers Want

Consumers like email. And if you want to connect with them, email had best be part of your integrated marketing strategy. I was reading ExactTarget’s Marketers Are From Mars Report, which surveyed 400 marketers and 1200 consumers about their preferences when it comes to communicating and/or engaging with brands. The results are interesting.

We marketers like the Interwebs. We are married to our devices and social networks and use those channels on pretty much a daily basis. The problem with marketers, however, is that we need to quit thinking about what we like and do and need and focus on what our customers and prospects want and need. It is so not about us, and the quicker we realize that, the better we can deliver for our clients and the products and services they sell.

I love email. My family teases me because I’m constantly lecturing them that it’s really important to communicate with people in their channel of choice. And that’s even more true today in our fragmented world comprised of more channels than most of us can keep up with. For instance, when it comes to my grown daughters, I’ve learned that calling and expecting them to answer the phone is a waste of time, but that if I text them, they’ll respond. Mostly.

My husband’s a phone guy and if I want him, the best way to reach him is always by phone. And voicemail? I’m so over it. I’ve given up leaving voice messages almost anywhere because I’m a believer that few people listen to them—myself included.
If you want to reach me, email is my preferred channel. I miss phone calls all the time and often because my ringer is turned off. I like it that way. I also miss text messages all the time and I’m not really sure why, it just happens. But I check my email about one million times a day—and I can promise with some certainty that if you communicate with me by email, I’m more likely to see that than any other communiqué.

Sound at all like your life? We all like different things and we all like being communicated with in different methods. So when it comes to marketing, you’ve got to factor the preferences of your prospects and customers into your messaging and sales strategies.

And when it comes to a preferred channel, no matter what anyone may tell you, email rules. And that’s certainly what the consumers who participated in this survey indicated. They love email. Let’s take a look at the channels that both the marketers and consumers surveyed said they use—which really isn’t surprising. Note that email, texting and Facebook pretty much reign supreme.

Now let’s look at where the survey participants said they wanted to connect with brands. Email is the channel that they use most often to connect with brands or companies they trust. 85% of consumers—both those with smartphones and those without–ranked email as their go-to channel for connecting with and communicating with brands. And 56% of those consumers head straight to Facebook. We’ve written before about the importance of making sure your customer service operations are socialized, and this data very much bears that out.

When it comes to marketing messages received through various channels and customers making a purchase as a result of one of those messages, only 98% of consumers have made a purchase as a result of email (56% of smartphone owners and 42% of non smartphone users). I’m thinking that if you’re not laser focused on your email marketing efforts as part of your integrated marketing strategies, this data might inspire you to rethink that. I can promise you that for our ecommerce clients in particular, email is our most valuable marketing channel and all our efforts are focused on growing, building, segmenting, personalizing and fine-tuning our customer lists.

Social continues to be weak when it comes to purchases made as a direct result of social, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t participate in social media channels—we think they’re very important, especially with regard to delivering great customer service and building brand awareness and trust. And direct mail? Anyone scoffing at “old school” direct mail should note that when it comes to effectiveness in driving sales, from a consumer standpoint it’s as effective as email marketing and should also be at the top of your list.

So that’s the data. And if you’re smart, you’ll survey your own customers and prospects and see what they tell you they want when it comes to marketing to and communicating with them. And then you can tailor your marketing efforts and your marketing spend accordingly. For purposes of this survey, respondents were pretty clear. They were most interested in brands having a great website, communicating with them via email and having a presence on Facebook. Oh, and I can’t resist mentioning that most consumers surveyed weren’t at all interested in that smartphone app. Something to keep in mind when that comes up in conversations with your marketing team.

What do you think about this data? Does it bear up with what your data shows you? Do you focus a lot on email as part of your integrated marketing efforts? Do you survey your customers to ask them what they want or do you just guess based on your personal preferences? I’d love to hear about what’s worked for you.
And if you’d like to read the ExactTarget report in its entirety (and you should!), you can access it here. For the record, we’re not a client of ExactTarget nor are we compensated in any way for talking about their products and services.

View the original article here.

Are you a start up business or in the re-brand phase? Social Media Will Play a C…

Planned Growth — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:00:29 +0000

Are you a start up business or in the re-brand phase? Social Media Will Play a Crucial Role in the Reinvention of Business. http://ow.ly/frnKn

Social Media Will Play a Crucial Role in the Reinvention of Business
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Social media can bring ideas from the edge of the company to the core.

How to Make the Most of Twitter for Your Business http://ow.ly/frnyb

Planned Growth — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 21:00:31 +0000

How to Make the Most of Twitter for Your Business http://ow.ly/frnyb

How to Make the Most of Twitter for Your Business | Business 2 Community
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Twitter is a microblogging service, one where people can send and receive text-based messages for up to 140 characters. Started in 2006, Twitter is…

Attention South Florida!! Want to see Aerosmith in Concert in a suite at BB&T Ce…

Planned Growth — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 22:05:11 +0000

Attention South Florida!! Want to see Aerosmith in Concert in a suite at BB&T Center December 9th?

Click Here: http://ow.ly/ewb5V

Planned Growth
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Success is not accidental. It does not happen because you ‘found your mojo’. It is a result of…

Are you staying up with all the Twitter changes? Learn about the latest change r…

Planned Growth — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 21:00:28 +0000

Are you staying up with all the Twitter changes? Learn about the latest change right here! Hint: it involves email! http://ow.ly/frnid

Twitter unveils email sharing feature for tweets – Computer Business Review
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Users can now email tweets directly from the twitter message stream.