September 29, 2011 at 5:24 pm
By Janette Speyer and Alison Brown – Web Success Team
A call-to-action is a common online marketing tactic used by marketing experts to urge people to engage with a product or service. Social media marketing advertisements that don’t display a call-to-action are often considered incomplete and ineffective because you aren’t asking customers to connect with you. While this passive approach has been effective in the past, what is even more effective is something called a “call-to-reaction.” It allows you to engage your audience on a deeper level, and gives them an incentive to connect with you immediately.
Continue reading “Call to Re-Action: How to Engage Your Audience on a Deeper Level” »
By Justin Delos Reyes – Web Success Team
Social media is, without a doubt, a great place for businesses to start or continue their online marketing efforts. But brands cannot thrive online and achieve web success through social media alone. In order for them to convert Likes into sales or retain customers, they need to complement their social media pages with a strong website.
Continue reading “Complementing Social Media Pages with a Strong Website” »
March 29, 2011 at 1:38 pm
By Justin Delos Reyes, Web Success Team
Facebook launched its revamped Questions tool last week. Unlike Quora and Yahoo! Answers (which focus on “expert” advice), Questions serves as a recommendation engine between friends. Word-of-Mouth marketing is a powerful tool and brands have a great opportunity to work their way into personal conversations. Questions also gives brands another tool to understand their customers better.
Continue reading “Work Your Way into Personal Conversations with Facebook Questions” »
December 2, 2010 at 6:03 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
The art of selling in today’s digital workplace has never been easier and never been harder at the same time. That’s definitely a contradiction, but so is Selling Ice to Eskimos. On first inspection, they “obviously” don’t need ice. And it’s a hard, if not impossible sell at best!
On closer inspection don’t Eskimos have the same needs and desires that we “southerners” have? We buy things that we don’t need or spend more money on an item we could get for less. For example: “We need a new freezer. Let’s buy the sub-zero one. I know it’s more money but it has so many great features and we are paying on installments and it’s only a ‘little’ more each month.” Think of your recent purchases — cologne, watches, cars, clothes. You may start to see where I am going with this.
Continue reading “How to Sell Ice to Virtual Eskimos” »
By Bob Speyer and Kristin Tomlinson
Everyone has sent out an email with either a mistake or omitted important information. We’re only human and that’s part of our nature. So what happens next? A second email is immediately sent out following the first blast that corrects the previous mistakes.
There is one BIG difference, however. The “Oops” email is opened at 3 times the rate of the original one. Why? Because we don’t mind the mistakes, but we’re curious creatures and want to see where the “slip up” was made. This tiny error can turn into one major marketing advantage.
Continue reading “Turning “Oops” into Opportunity!” »
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.
