October 7, 2010 at 1:14 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
The world of online marketing is vast and seemingly chaotic. People are always asking me where do I begin to penetrate my marketplace and direct limited resources to be most effective. Fear of the unknown, paralyzes companies into developing a cohesive marketing strategy. Businesses do not have the ability or resources to blanket the globe, so they need prioritize goals for strategy development. Here are a few tips or guidelines on how to best leverage online marketing:
Continue reading “Online Marketing: Checklist of Where to Begin” »
October 5, 2010 at 3:39 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
According to The Nielsen Company, one out of every five minutes spent online is on social media. Targeting your customers on social networks makes sense and is effective, helping to expand your reach, increase sales and build your fan base. Here are some ways to maximize the effectiveness of your social media campaigns:
1. Call to Action: Capturing consumers’ attention and building relationships are key, but what do you do to convert them to customers or evangelists? Social media is a lot more subtle than direct response marketing. A call to action can be anything from likes to social sharing and commenting to subscribing to your RSS feeds. Make sure that the action you want your target audience to take circles back to a specific company goal, such as offering a promotional code for product discounts if a consumer “likes” your fan page.
Continue reading “How to Make Social Media More Effective” »
January 19, 2010 at 7:28 pm
I recently came across an article in Advertising Age about re-branding Time Warner Cable.
In my very recent past Time Warner Cable was one of my accounts on the creative services side. Being tightly controlled by the large Madison Avenue Advertising Agency. Creativity was very limited.
In this day and age with all the social media avenues Time Warner Cable can find a viable avenue to re-brand the company and its services.
We are a client of Time Warner Cable and find that the company is “stuck” in the last century, as you can see by the comments on the Ad Age post.
They are competing with the Dish, Netflix and many other more “modern” avenues like watching TV online. Customers are their lifeblood and they need to do a better job taking care of them.
I would STRONGLY recommend that Time Warner get a Facebook page and a Twitter page and USE them for customer complaints and suggestions. That would be a start. Then follow what other strong customer oriented brands are doing. Starbucks, JetBlue and others are using Social Media to better communicate their services, offer discounts or specials, field and resolve complaints, and to gain valuable customer feedback. They gain loyalty and repeat business.
Here is one of many “Time Warner Sucks” pages that I found on Facebook. It has over 1,000 members.
A Lesson for Your Business
Throw a rock in a pond and watch it ripple. The bigger the stone, the bigger the consequences. But what does this mean for your business? Do not underestimate the value of social media. It is a unique way to reach out to current and new customers. Business is about building relationships and trust. Keeping open new and popular channels of communication will help grow your business online. And it is a good way to defuse negative press before it gains momentum.
