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‘Marketing’ Category

  1. Taking Advantage of Location Based Marketing

    February 18, 2012 by Blair Stover

    Texting on a qwerty keypad phone

    Image via Wikipedia

    Getting started with location-based marketing is not as difficult as one might think. Your business can take advantage of this type of marketing by utilizing global-positioning technology in order to send specific geographic business marketing to consumers through their mobile devices. This is a huge prospect for businesses of any size. Additionally, this opportunity continues to grow.

    Location-based marketing can be implemented through use of apps. However, turning the focus to text messaging, Recent research indicates that the overwhelming majority of text messages are opened and read in three minutes or less. Thus, making it possible to reach many potential clients in a short amount of time.

    While experimenting with your business, give customers the chance to opt in. Some people will not want to disclose their personal information. Give the customer a clear understanding of what opting in will mean for them. Be certain it is clearly stated how you will use the personal information they have shared with you. This will put to rest any concerns the may have over privacy issues.

    Now that you have gained the trust of your customers, keep it. Do not sell off their personal information to third-party companies. Add more value to your service by keeping it from being advertising-based. In turn, clients will be more agreeable to sharing their personal information with you.

    Finally, allow opting out to be easy. Should a customer decide they no longer want to be in your program, it should not be forced upon them. Even through the use of technology, you should aim to keep your customers happy in order to earn their loyalty.

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  2. 5 Great Ways to Bring Social Media to Your Events

    December 28, 2011 by Blair Stover

    Any company, or individual for that matter, can leverage social media tools to bring more attendees to an event. For at least the last decade, social media tools of all kinds have been employed by small businesses to create buzz, ramp up

    Social Media Outposts
    Image by the tartanpodcast via Flickr

    attendance, and spread the word about company promotions and happenings. While there are countless mini-strategies for using social media, here are five common ways that the process can get you into the mix.

    There is no reason why you have to wait until the last minute to create excitement about your event. Allow for pre-registration with web utilities like Eventbrite. A tiny bit of planning will pay big dividends in terms of attendance.

    Let the event shape itself by asking registrants what they want to see. Many entertainment companies do this in order to build a show around one headliner. If potential audience members want juggling or dance shows, you can always sub-contract those functions and design an event around what your public desires. Think about using PollDaddy or TwtPoll for taking simple surveys.

    One of the trendiest, high tech ways to put on a fantastic presentation is with QR codes. You can create a QR code that smartphone users can scan. If your presentation is on Slideshare, phone users will be able to watch the formal presentation on their screens while you are conducting the outdoor event with no need for audio or visual materials onstage.

    Build an image inventory from the event by encouraging attendees to post their photos on Flickr. Consider offering some small reward or freebie to those who allow their personal pictures to be used.

    If you are short of seating or formal space for your event, think about allowing virtual attendance. Many large and small events sell virtual tickets to those who cannot attend the live portion of the presentation. There does not need to be a fee, but if you want to charge a nominal amount, try to keep the ticket price very low so as to boost attendance. At least initially, it is all about making connections, not making money on the events themselves.

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  3. Twitter Tips for Better Marketing

    November 15, 2011 by Blair Stover

    If you are looking to market like the pros, take these tips when marketing on Twitter. First, improve your tweets. In your own voice, share valuable content with a style which goes along with your brand.  Also, provide key words in your tweets. Use words that describe your industry and business best. Include many of these words when creating your 140 word posts.

     

    Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

    Image via CrunchBase

    Share useful content by providing links. By doing so, you are effectively retaining and growing followers. This is a stronger tactic than actually engaging in a conversation with them. This is due to the fact that growing a fan base requires you to share more links than replies.

     

    Take advantage of customer search orders to learn what consumers want. Once you know what your clients want, you can
    work on providing it. Then, engage them in a conversation to  about the problem your business can solve.

     

    The most crucial part of a Twitter marketing strategy is to tweet with the right people after connecting with them.  Do not just follow anyone. Seek out relevant people who are willing to follow you. Having thousands of followers does you no good if none of them are interested in your content. Local businesses can even do this by finding potential followers who live in your region and have shown interest in your industry.

     

    Use icebreakers to make connections with the strangers who will follow you. Try to find a connection with them. Try sending them an @messaging and detail something that was insightful in their last blog post.
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  • Small Business and the New Facebook

    October 11, 2011 by Blair Stover

    Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

    Image via CrunchBase

    You may not be surprised to learn that Facebook has changed again. These new changes affect brands and companies that utilize Facebook for marketing more than ever now. So what does this mean for small businesses?

    The first change involves privacy settings for sharing. Users now have  more control over who is able to see the content they post on their  wall, or home page. Facebook defaulted “Public” as a setting rather than “Everyone”. “Public” means that one’s updates, photos and additional user information can be viewed by anyone in the public. This is helpful as this will most likely result in less public-facing citations.

    If you were excited about Facebook Deals, you should know it is over. Facebook has discontinued the project. However, the company stated that it is looking into the best way to be of service to local businesses, as it learned much from this project. Another feature which will soon be phased out is location tagging. This is the feature Facebook members use with their cell phone to “check in” when at locations.

    Rather than targeting ads by precise interests and keywords, Facebook now allows those who advertise on their media network to target ads based on topic. This will simplify the list of keywords companies were managing. Now, a business can target the interests of their clientele.

    Restrictions on types of advertising have been eased by Facebook. So long as ads are properly targeted, Facebook now allows legal gambling operations to be promoted. This includes offline casinos. Furthermore, ads for herbal and dietary supplements are now allowable, as long as they do not include banned ingredients such as, ephedra, anabolic steroids or human growth hormones.

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