Published Wednesday April 24, 2013
Digital Analyst and Sociologist Brian Solis believes "now's the time for investing in something more than price, performance or value. The customer experience is everything now. Businesses must create experiences that mean something".
In today's marketing and advertising, trusting the company or person first, before you buy what they are offering is quickly becoming the norm. People simply do not want to be marketed to or sold by people and companies that have not earned their loyalty and trust.
Telling more of the story in all of your marketing about your process, results and experiences to create the customer experience with you is a very effective approach and tactic that works to build that interest.
Show Integrity and CredibilityForget about trying to fool people today. Transparency and Google will out you. Be who you say you are and do what you say you are going to do. Zappos does this so well.
Demonstrate a Consistent Track Record
Create products and services consistently that help people innovating according to trends and times Minnetonka Moccasin has been doing this since 1946.
Tell the Truth and Be Authentic
Stories include failures, down times, and challenges, as well as successes and great things we do in our communities humanizing us. Sara Blakely of Spanx story of entrepreneurial success wasn't easy.
Care about Your Customer and Humanity
There is no better example of this than Tom's Shoes, who matches one for one, for everyone they sell, they donate.
Talk to people personally, and yes look them in the eye, as if you were face to face having a cup of java or tea with someone through your ads, writing, video and photographs and especially in your social media.
Who doesn't like a great story? We can help you tell and market yours, so people will become interested in you and then what you sell.
Published Monday March 18, 2013
We wanted to refer back to our January Blog article: Top Content Marketing Tactics That Grow Your Business and Brand and talk more about aggregating rich content on your blog site.
Making your blog an active hub that people want to frequent, learning from and recommend pays big dividends. Ultimately, if you can write content, you should, but finding and featuring great articles and authors is also a great way to provide resources for your community.
Here are some FAQ's about aggregating content.1- What kind of content should I be featuring?
This is all about what you do and whom you serve. What are the top 3 areas of expertise you feature and want to be known for? What are 10 additional related or complimentary content areas you can feature? Whatever business or industry you are in; gather the content that is most useful and interesting to your community and for those who you want to attract.
Jeff Sonderman of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St Petersburg, Fl, says: "By aggregating the work of others alongside your own, you place the readers' interests ahead of your own competitive pride. You build a stronger reader relationship than other sites, and you earn loyalty and trust that can pay off in real dollars".
2- Where do I find the best content to aggregate?
The best ways to find just about anything is of course using a major search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo, and put in very specific key words or key word phrases. Also, use the top websites and blog sites of your industry and professional organizations. Follow the RSS feeds of sites and experts you want to keep up with weekly.
Some of the major news and information sites such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes or the New York Times are always great sources for content or finding other sites to link to. Here are some must read tips for using Google search for content curation.
3- What are the best ways to promote my content rich site?
The "best practice" for promoting content is using social media marketing, through all of the social platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, as well as a permission based email marketing system. These tap into your voluntary, permission based community that you already have a relationship with and then are re-posting out to their communities.
Another feature you can use is to put a "Blog-Roll" feature or resources section on your blog that lists the experts and their blogs and links to their sites. Linking to your guest bloggers, authors and writers not only features them but gives them a reason to feature you.
If you want to see how some of the top blogs and websites present and aggregate their content in a diverse cross section of categories check out Daily Tekk's 100 Best, Most Interesting Blogs and Websites for 2013.
Aggregating quality articles and content from key websites, writers, bloggers or industry sources is a smart way to support people whose content you enjoy, bring people to your site, brand your business and keep people coming back and staying on your site longer.
Published Thursday February 21, 2013
When it comes to anything marketing today, we can all agree how much things have changed, but also how the fundamentals still work. Fundamentals that are timeless will always work if they are applied and adapted.
We enjoyed reading an article by digital analyst, strategist and sociologist Brian Solis, about "Exploring the 5th and 6th P’s of Marketing", because this is our business and our background. The marketer E. Jerome McCarthy proposed a four P's classification in 1960, which has been used by marketers throughout the world.
The fundamental 4 P's of marketing: product, price, place and promotion will always be the base line, but new media marketing adds a multitude of essential marketing fundamental to this mix now.
Solis says, "We now live in an era where customers are more connected, informed, and empowered, and as a result, their expectations amplify and modify".
The 4 P's will always apply to the fundamentals of solid marketing.
- Is the PRODUCT marketable and bankable and finds and fills a viable niche?
- Is it PRICED competitively to sell?
- Is it being PLACED in front of the target audience who can use or recommend it?
- Is it being PROMOTED where target customers are motivated to buy?
The 5th and 6th P's suggested in Brian's article add two important dimensions for 21st century relevance.
- Is it reaching PEOPLE in a way that taps into their empathy?
- Is it sending the right PURPOSE for why it should be considered and consumed?
AD Marketing wants to add six more P's that we believe are important in today's marketing process that we use in our approach with our clients.
Personality
Presence
Positioning
Performance
Privacy
Platform
The marketing and branding strategy that goes into the success of products and services today reflects the prominence that the consumer now has in it. The customer experience now becomes the deal breaker.
Are you creating that experience for your customers?
Published Thursday January 31, 2013
Content Marketing is the key tactical communication trend for 2013. It's not new, but it's finally reached main street business, as we all continue to publish our expertise through many platforms media.
Content Marketing is creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat, long term buyers.
The type of content you create and share should mirror your values, what you want to be known for and yes, the services you sell. Content marketing does three important things to advance these goals.
- It helps you to educate people so that they come to know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you.
- It builds your credibility in your field.
- It can inspire others to share and spread your information.
The relationship in business with your customer and community must come first. Content marketing is a very effective strategy to building and maintaining relationships with customers, community, friends and family.
According to the 2013 B2C Content Marketing Trend Report the top Content Marketing tactics being used are:
Social Media
There is NO ignoring this, doing it half heartedly or convincing yourself that it's not important. If you are a dedicated, business professional then using one or more form of social media - Face book, Twitter or LinkedIn is simply a must. Why? It brands you and your business as relevant players.
Aggregating Articles on Your Website
Making your website a hub that people frequent, enjoy and learn from will pay big dividends. Aggregating articles form key websites, bloggers or industry sources is a smart way to bring people to your site and keep them on longer.
Email Marketing Newsletters
Building a permission based, voluntary opt in email marketing list is one of the most effective tactics for building strong relationships that become loyal and responsive to your products, services and information you share freely with them.
Blogs
Blogs are one of the most effective tactics to build your credibility and authority in whatever field of expertise you want people to align your brand with. Writing articles or featuring other bloggers that educate and inform people is the best way to sell.
Two sites where you can learn a lot about content marketing tactics and strategy are the Content Marketing Institute and Brian Clark's Copyblogger.com.
AD Marketing takes a broad, blended and integrated approach to marketing your business with content marketing being a core part of their marketing strategy. Visit us and see what we are doing for our clients.
Published Tuesday December 11, 2012
The holidays are a special season and sending personalized greeting cards, videos or messages makes it a special occasion.
Think about it...how many holiday greetings do you receive that you can tell almost no thought went into the email or message?
Personalized holiday messages take more time, effort and can cost more but they have more impact on people that have impacted us.
This the perfect reason to "get more personal and wow them" with your holiday cards and messages this year!
We see the decorations go up all over towns, businesses, communities and homes creating a warm, exciting, fun and festive experience. An important part of the festivities is reaching out and touching people we care about and appreciate both personally and professionally.
Although much of our communications have shifted online, it's still a wonderful gesture and an effective way to send holiday greetings to distant or near friends, and colleagues either as an e-card or video message.
When you make the time to create a holiday message that is thoughtful or memorable and think more personal and creative...tis the season!
Consider these suggestions.
- Cut down your list to your key VIP's, and spend more time showing them you really care with some cool, different cards and a personalized message especially for that person. Need some inspiration or ideas on cards, check these out!
- Holiday cards are part of the visual festivities. Choose colorful, vibrant cards, with bold, interesting images that will adorn any home, or holiday setting. String them up, pin them to a corkboard, or put them in the tree or around tables and furniture.
- Take this more personal opportunity to say thank you. A thoughtful, heartfelt message to someone who has supported you, sent in a holiday card or message is very effective.
- Think creative and include other things. Write a year in review, include a vacation picture, stick in a cool holiday bookmark, or update a new address, phone number or website.
Holiday gift giving and messaging is a tradition that should be protected and saved. We should never get too busy during the holiday to participate in and be thoughtful to people we care about in our family, business and community. Tis the season to spread good cheer, kindness and gratitude!
Here are some great organizational tips for sending out your holiday cards and messages.
Looking for a special way to involve the whole family? The Holiday Mail for Heroes program through the Red Cross and Pitney Bowes makes sure our Military gets holiday cards from anyone!
At AD Marketing we look forward to this time of year, to say thank you to all of our loyal friends, fans and customers for their love and support. So, from all of us to all of you have a Happy Holiday and Wonderful New Year!
Published Tuesday November 20, 2012
In today's business world, you'll probably get just one chance to make a dynamite first impression and that's why, how you look online, on your marketing materials, and in person is so important.
We are judge by our visual image and branding. It makes a statement, gives an important first vibe and can make all the difference in what next step someone is willing to take.
So what's your SWAG, both inside and out? Sparkle
Wisdom
Authenticity
Generosity
It starts with your Sparkle. How you look and your personality. Being optimistic, outgoing and having humility and humor are what sparkle is all about. These qualities are magnetic. My colleague and friend Deborah Shane talks about the 5 Keys to Styling Your Personal Branding:
- Find Your Sweet Spot and Live there.
- Look Like a Million Bucks.
- Serve More, Sell Later.
- Be More, Do More.
- Suit up, Show Up and Speak Up.
According to marketing software giant Hub Spot: "Social media is changing--its rushing into its most visual stage. If you aren't prepared for the visual content revolution, you may be left in the dust."
This year, at AD Marketing we took our visual imaging and marketing, as well as our clients very seriously and to the next step! We made sure our websites, blog sites and social media sites were all real time, up to date, appealing, easy to find and easy to navigate.
We call it "The Sum of All Things Concerned", where we use media, technology, social platforms and engagement to coordinate the movement of multiple disciplines to capture market attention, engagement and action.
Here's TopTenz.net Top 10 Brands. They all have a distinct visual presence.
We start with and can help you with ideas about your own brand identification, helping you break through the clutter and making sure that you gain the attention you need to stand out and be successful.
Published Thursday October 25, 2012
As trends have it, they come, they grow and they go to the next part of their cycle. Remember when our desktop computer was the hottest, most connected piece of technology we were using? We couldn't wait to get home so we could get online! Well fast forward to today and mobile communication is rocketing into morphing desk top usage. Engagement rates via mobile are the highest in the financial vertical (21.5%), followed by retail (14.3%) and entertainment (12.1%) and auto (9.9%) close behind.
People are buying off mobile devices at record pace. A Javelin Strategy & Research report predicts that mobile payments are on pace to hit more than $20.7 billion.
Although desktops are still very much in play and people will continue to spend time getting online, the new 'real time' frontier is mobile not desktop! Smart phones, tablets, IPads and Netbooks are all making immediate, real time online engagement, commerce and activity possible and this is future of our web and online life.
It is being suggested that m-commerce (mobile, digital) has advantages over e-commerce (website, desktop or laptop) and that 80.6% of US smartphone users (85.9 million in total) have accessed retail content on their devices via m-commerce with Amazon Sites as the leading destination!
What are you doing to prepare your company for the m-commerce explosion?
Here are a few tips.
- Leverage and engage in social media which drives brand engagement and lead generation.
- Create more video and post them on your websites, blog and Youtube.
- Create sales promotions which become calls to action.
- Have a join or sign up box on your sites to capture emails.
Here are the top 10 social networking sites and forums! Make sure you are using the top ones that your customers are using and engaging in. Have a plan, strategy and consistency with how you are using them.
Here are some of the top e-commerce sites, where you can see how they are engaging, serving and creating their experience with customers.
AD Marketing and Communications can help your business be ready, armed and up to date to welcome mobile customers.
Published Thursday September 13, 2012
We've come a long way from sending memos and snail mailing, but at the time, those were the ways we reached the masses or multiple people at the same time with one message. We still do that!
Fast forward to Email Marketing today, which has the capacity to reach people locally or globally, quickly, affordably and in a highly targeted way. Again, the more things change, the more they stay the same. In this case, being able to reach more people, with a much broader reach has unlimited benefits and potential for businesses big and small.
Emarketer reports that: "Interactive marketing is becoming a larger part of the marketing mix, and Forrester estimates that by 2016, online advertising spend will be equivalent to television spend today. Marketers will spend $77 billion on interactive marketing by 2016."
According to Strong Mail's annual marketing trends survey, conducted by Zoomerang, the majority (68%) of business executives worldwide said they plan to integrate their social media marketing efforts with email in 2012.
My colleague and friend Deborah Shane says, "Email marketing integrated with social media has many tangible advantages, plus the social proof that it works is undeniable".
Here are some key tips to successful email marketing.
The Power of PermissionThere is great power and responsibility in permission based email marketing, as long as you are using it appropriately and respecting your community. If someone gives you permission to email them, respect it.
Be Consistent and Bring Value
Create a monthly Newsletter with specific themes and content that is thoughtful and highly targeted to what your followers need and want from you.
Integrate and Unify Your Message Across All Media
Unify the message and visuals across your social media, blog, websites, podcasting, video and mobile.
Here is an example of how you can use email marketing that we created for one of our clients Kenmark Air!
The business landscape, best practices and tools of the trade of our times call for smart communications that serve people and help brand us as leaders and experts in our field. There is no better way to communicate that directly and personally than with Email Marketing.
Here are some of the Top Email Marketing services and reviews and a fun history of email marketing!
Published Wednesday August 15, 2012
We all remember them, our Moms purchased from them, some of them came weekly, and others came seasonally or yearly. They were the traveling salesman and believe it or not some still do exist in some parts of the country!We established relationships with these salesmen and they knew everyone in our family's name, nickname, birthdays and other significant family milestones. That's because they called on the same families for years and watched families grow up. Our Charles Chips, or as we fondly referred to them as Charlie's Chips man even had a nick name for my little sister.
Sales used to be door to door, person to person, and personal. Imagine a time not too long ago when it was standard and perfectly acceptable for the Fuller Brush Man, Amyway, Charles Chips, Encyclopedias and Vacuums to be pitched directly to people in their homes!
The Charles Chips story is one of loyal fans, hope, brand legacy and rebirth. Charles Chips launched in 1942 by Effie and Si Musser in Lancaster Pennsylvania. It started in their kitchen as a way for them to make extra money, from their fledgling farm! National growth, the sale to investors and twice in bankruptcy followed.
Great brands never really die in the hearts of their fans. The company was all but forgotten about until the Scardino family purchased the company in early 2011. Being true fans of the brand, they wanted to recapture the true essence of Charles Chips and bring back the famous tins filled with all of the original recipes.
What was the true essence of the Charlie Chips Brand?
- Personality Marketing and Selling
- Convenience
- Quality Recipes and Unique Packaging
- Consistency
- Referrals
70 years later, Charlie Chips original recipes, convenience, quality products, unique packaging and consistency are back. They may not be delivered in their signature truck, door to door, but they do come via mail from their website in the iconic Charlie Chips Tins, which can be repurposed, as they used to be and they are on Facebook and Twitter!
Here's Charlie Chips promise: "So when you treat yourself to these traditional recipes, don't be surprised if you suddenly feel as if you've stepped back in time. We guarantee your satisfaction. The people at Charles Chips® would never settle for less".
Welcome back Charles Chips, or Charlie Chips to millions of us! We missed you!
Published Saturday July 28, 2012
"the more things change, the more they stay the same"There are certain constants in life, human needs that no matter what year it is, how old you are, where you live, who you are hanging out with or what stage of life you are in-your needs don't really change. What changes is how we fulfill them and what we use to fulfill them.
Maslow outlined his hierarchy of needs and uses the terms Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and Love, Esteem, and Self-Actualization needs to describe the pattern that human motivations generally move through.
This article in Psychology Today, Journal of Consumer Research demonstrates how the display of brands automatically affects our behavior. In the studies, exposure to the Apple logo made people more creative than exposure to an IBM logo, and the Disney logo made people more honest than the E! Entertainment logo.
This blog is about brand and marketing nostalgia. The fascination with all of the ways and things we use to consume, communicate, commiserate and connect with each other that have come and gone. The Red Telephone Booth Boxes in London is the icon that we will use as our central image and idea.
One of the most progressive trend sites is Trendwatching.com, who has been tracking global trends in just about every category since 2002. They have trend spotters all over the world noticing habits, gidgits and gadgets, that their trend setters report on monthly and yearly.
This blog will be dedicated to brand and marketing nostalgia. It will present ideas and examples of how things we remember from our past are reinvented, re-applied and adapted in a relevant form or way to serve our "hierarchy of needs" now!
"Earlier this week, BT (British Telephone) announced plans to splash 1,500 liters of red paint on 400 phone boxes in London and Weymouth, Dorset, ahead of this summer's Olympic Games, as well as restoring 1,300 of its modern grey kiosks in preparation for the flood of tourists to the UK".
Take a walk down memory lane with this Telephone Box history in pictures.
If you see one and its open go inside, sit down, close the door and make your mobile phone call in peace and quiet!