Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Determining your objectives sounds simple. But do you really know what you want? Success only comes after you’ve taken the steps to get there. You want people to recognize, trust, and choose your brand. On top of that, you want consumers coming back for more. Online marketing campaigns can help you reach your objectives; whether those goals are brand recognition, customer engagement, lead generation, or increased traffic to your website.
The swoosh, golden arches, and apple are just a few examples of how companies have effectively built their image in our minds. Strong branding allows your brand to stand out among competitors. Through online marketing, you increase your view to consumers, prominently displaying your brand’s message and engaging them. With the need for transparency being a priority today more than ever before, online marketing is one of many avenues used to remain present in your consumer’s everyday life.
Businesses have three main objectives: make money, save money, and build brand equity. Having access to consumers at your fingertips, literally, will allow you to make an impression on your target audience in real time, actively generate and convert leads, and act in a more cost-effective manner than when utilizing traditional marketing techniques; thus maintaining the main objectives.
As Social Media has taken the stage with many brands, coordinating between your company’s Traditional Online Media and Social Media aims can be confusing. Social should be viewed as online PR coupled with brand management, engagement and active advertising and messaging. When defining your goals or strategy, engage a mediator that will help you keep on target while educating you on key concepts that you or your company may be unfamiliar with. Also, keep in mind that there are both Quantitative and Qualitative metrics within online Media and Social Engagement. They vary by industry and company – you’ll want to define them as a baseline for your projects.
Obtaining your objectives, once you have clearly defined what they are, can be a simple process. If your online marketing campaign raises brand awareness, generates leads, converts leads, or engages your consumers, then you have met your metrics for success.
Tags: audience engagement, brand strategy, online marketing, online objectives, social media
Posted in Branding, Marketing, Small Business News, Strategy | No Comments »
Monday, January 25th, 2010
When brainstorming marketing prerogatives for the New Year, keep in mind the power of relationships.
 Build Trust, Build Brand Talking to people is a free marketing tool. It can often lead to meaningful connections, referrals, or at the very least, beginning a rapport with someone as you enhance the credibility of your business or brand. Nothing is more effective than building relationship, having conversations and making connections.
So get out there! Develop a monthly networking calendar, go out with the right mentality, build your network, jump into the conversation, and put a friendly, receptive face to your brand. If you are feeling really ambitious, host a meet up event and bring the people to you. By distinguishing yourself as a go-getting networker, you will put yourself in great a position to get more business.
With that said, it is important not to forget about your current customers. Developing a relationship built on trust through honest interaction and clear responsive communication, your clients will see your worth and value your advice. People are more likely to work with someone they trust and have a personal relationship with, than those they do not.
Tags: cheap marketing, cost effective marketinging, distiguishing brand, event networking, power of relationships
Posted in Branding, Marketing, Small Business News, Strategy | No Comments »
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
2010 is the year that online marketing trends really take off. Businesses, moms, companies, vendors, consumers are all out there cruising the web. Twitter, Facebook, Google, iPhone apps, Bogs, YouTube: are the new vernacular and everybody using it and doing it. If you are out to market your goods, turn on your computer and get to work.
With real time benefits, more interaction and connectivity, and audience engagement, online marketing has become more hands on than ever before. For the first time, business can begin to understand their audience in an up close and personal manner. Who they are, where they spend their time online and how they spend their money–and use that knowledge to create strategy accordingly. Business have already started to employ SEO, RSS syndication, bookmarking, pull marketing, and audience sourcing through Social Media  platforms to get their products/services directly to their market.
It is important to remember, although marketing is taking a turn to digital, creating synergy between online and traditional campaigns is still crucial to effectively reaching your marketing aspirations. By employing traditional techniques like using a consistent brand and message identity across all channels and understanding objectives and metrics, utilizing these tools to the online sphere will boost any marketing campaign.
Tags: audience engagement, online marketing trends, SEO, small business, social media, Strategy, synergy
Posted in Branding, Marketing, Small Business News, Strategy | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
One of the most cost-efficient ways of entering into the New Year is developing a solid business and marketing strategy. While it may be time consuming, the time spent developing a strong plan of attack, will not only save you money all year long, but it will give you a clear vision of how you will reach your revenue goals.
Developing an approach is a lot like performing detective work; you have to become the Sherlock Holmes of strategy. Asking the right questions, uncovering clues of the market, understanding the players involved all in order to obtain the correct answers to solve your business case.
Strategy begins with research. Good ole’ fashion research it acts as your magnifying glass for analyzing the market, recognizing and learning from competitors and having a thorough understanding of your target audience and how to reach them. By defining your customer, identifying who they are, how they make their purchasing decisions, what demographic they are in, will allow you to strategize an effective plan around how you will reach them and secure their business.
After discovering the aspects of the market you can then determine a realist budget
 Thinking like Holmes for your marketing campaigns and prioritize where you should focus your assets and attention on.
Sherlock gets it when he says, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. (A Scandal in Bohemia)” So go out there and get your data and form your theories of how you will succeed in this New Year.
Tags: business strategy, Cost-efficent, marketing campaigns, marketing strategy, research, target market
Posted in Branding, Marketing, Small Business News, Strategy | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
 It’s one of the biggest challenges companies face. They spend a large portion of time and resources to get it right and it’s ever-evolving: reaching your target market. But, there are some ways to make this process easier, less stressful and more educational along the way.
Research is the keystone of developing successful ways to reach your market. With accurate research in place, choosing the most effective way to reach your audience becomes an easier, less painful process. Often times when confronted with a vast amount of information, it’s easy to lose track and focus. Here’s a list of questions that will get the ball rolling in the right direction and help you reach your target demographic:
- Who is your target audience?
- Where are they located?
- Are you using the most efficient platform to reach them?
- How do you want them to feel about your brand?
- Who is your competition?
- Are they doing anything you’re not?
In answering these questions, you will have a solid foundation off which to build your next marketing move. Having a strategy and positioning in place will help your company garner their desired results from marketing.
Tags: demographic, Marketing, niche market, positioning, research, Strategy, target audience, target demographic, target market
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Online marketing will help you find networking events that will generate in both business and buzz! Using online marketing to uncover offline networking has proven to be a success for any business, no matter what size. Investing in online marketing will increase your network, but make sure to stay updated about face-to-face networking opportunities. A great way to do this is by attending networking events related to your industry and primary objectives.
Here are some great sites that offer a wide range of industry related seminars, news and most of all networking events.
 Mediabistro: Offers seminars, webinars and networking events for media professionals all over the country. Also a great resource for new trends, jobs and news related to media.
Manhattan Chamber of Commerce: Provides extensive website and source for research with a separate events section that collects and presents a number of events cross a wide variety of industries.
Meetup: The world’s largest network of local Meetup groups. Allows anyone to start a group where the objective is to meet face-to-face and cultivate common interests.
Starting your own Meetup group is a great and cost-effective way to promote your business, engage in more personal conversations and cultivate relationships that could possibly lead to new business ventures. Use your online marketing channels to promote your group’s meetings and events. Increase engagement and conversation about your business by utilizing both offline and online networking!
Apart from connecting with potential opportunities at networking events, your online network can also provide you with feedback so you can adapt to the market and your consumer’s behavior. Let the online network function as a market resource that informs you what works and not before the information does any harm to your business!
Tags: Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, Media Bistro, Meetup, networking events, online marketing
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
The monetary benefits of online marketing have recieved a lot of attention lately. Sure, online marketing can increase your ROI and expand your market share–but there are other benefits to taking your marketing to the online world. Marketing online vastly increases the scope and diversity of your audience, but decre ases their attention span. So here are a few quick tips to make generating buzz about your compay online a breeze.
1. Bee Consistent
Make sure that everything from your branding to your content is on point. Since audience members have many different opportunities to interact with your brand, you want to make sure that your brand message is clear, concise and consistent. You don’t want to confuse your audience by sending mixed signals!
2. Bee Everywhere
With so many new online outlets and networks, it can be hard to keep up! But it’s crucially important to use as many marketing channels as possible to your advantage. Determine what platforms are right for you, and be sure to keep updated and relevant information on all of them.
3. Bee Engaging and Interactive
Online marketing provides you with the opportunity to engage with your customers on their turf. Don’t be afraid of this unfamiliar territory. Dive right in–explore, interact and, most of all, have fun getting to know your consumers! They’ll appreciate your time and attention.
4. Bee Unique
With so many other brands out there, you want to make yours stand out! Your audience now has the power to determine their brand experience, so creating a fresh, unique and relatable perspective is key. Following these tips will help your brand bee a winner on the online market!
Tags: bee, buzz, Marketing, marketing platform, online marketing, public relations, small busness, social media, Strategy
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
Monday, November 9th, 2009
 There are several ways to measure and track the successes and challenges of your online marketing. But, before you dive in and implement these tools and tactics, there are a few steps that must be taken.
1. Define Success
In business, “success” is subjective and what may seem to be successful for one campaign may be seen as detrimental to another. Ensure that members of your team (and your client!) have a solid grasp on what success means for the particular campaign on which you are working. Does success mean a high number of hits to your website? Or does it mean positive response from the community? Will you measure success by lead conversion, traffic or a combination of the two? Set goals that are measurable, realistic and specific and communicate these goals with your team in a public space.
2. Choose your Tools
With so many options for tracking online success, it is imperative that you choose a tool that is right for your company. For example, Google Analytics allows users to set and track goals. But, there are many other tools that measure a range of variables. To determine which tool is right for you, consider the metrics you would like to measure and why each is important. Find one tool that measures all of your outlined metrics, or find several tools that measure them individually. Either way, set up a system that works for you.
3. Create a Results Report
What good are results if they aren’t shared with your team or client? Determine a system for communicating whether your goals have been reached to your team. Celebrate success (however you define it!) and brainstorm solutions in instances when goals are not met. Measuring campaign progress will create a spirit of team work, and perhaps throwing incentive into the mix will create a little friendly competition that increases productivity! Share success with clients and members of your network through a newsletter. Get advice and feedback from your network using social media.
When tracking goals and measuring success, communication is key! Results are no good if they are kept to yourself and goals can not be met unless they are defined. So, before you set your goals talk to your team and client–but above all, aim high and the sky is the limit!
Tags: goals, Google, Google Analytics, metrics, metrics report, online marketing, results, success
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
Posted by Sumontro Roy.
There are two ways to make money on your website: selling goods/services and advertising revenue. Have you ever thought about bringing in additional revenue through your website? If you have, there are easy ways to jump start that cash with advertising. 
You can approach advertising on your site in one of three ways: CPM (Pay Per Impression), PPC (Pay Per Click) and Pay Per Sale (or Lead). Well, this is great to know, if you are a large, well known company and advertisers are contacting you. But what is your site is relatively unknown? Then what? If you are unknown and other companies are not contacting you to advertise on your site, you can join an affiliate network. This will allow you to be a part of a network where in you can connect with different advertisers. Choosing an affiliate program is all about knowing your target audience. Start with knowing your target demographic and picking an advertiser based on that knowledge.
Within the affiliate network, you will be presented with 3 different advertising options; CPM, PPC and Pay Per Sale or Lead.
1. CPM (Pay Per Impression): You, as the website owner, are paid by the number of times an advertisers’ banner is displayed on your website. Every time your website is loaded, the advertisement is as well. An impression signifies the number of times a banner is displayed on your website. CPM stands for Cost Per Thousand so $6 CPM means you receive $6 per 1,000 views. This would be a good solution for a site that attracts a high number of visitors.
2. PPC (Pay Per Click): You, as the website owner, are paid each time a user clicks on the advertisers’ banner. The going rate is usually higher than CPM since you are being paid when the user takes action. Obviously one should always be cognizant about which advertisers’ banners they place on their site, but with PPC, one should pay careful attention to the actually website demographic as a dental site with an advertisement for sugar free gum will most likely see more action than an advertisement for a candy bar.
3. Pay Per Sale (or Lead): You, as the website owner, are paid each time a user clicks on the advertiser’s banner and either purchases (sale conversion) or completes one of the required actions (ie: signs up to receive more information). This has a higher payout than CPM or PPC, but one must also be particularly well informed about their demographic as you are asking the user to complete 2 actions – clicking on the advertisement and taking a follow through action.
Here are some links to affiliate network sites:
When choosing which online advertising option is best for you, the key is to think about your target audience. What kinds of goods or services would your target audience be drawn to? Figure that out and with a few clicks of the mouse you can make the most of your online advertising!
Feel free to contact the Team at Perks to develop and implement an effective SEO/SEM and Online Campaign for you - we look forward to hearing from you!
Tags: advertising, advertising revenue, CPM, onlilne marketing, online advertising, Pay per click, pay per impression, pay per lead, pay per sale, PPC, web advertising
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
 As we constantly move towards a society where daily tasks such as paying the bills, ordering food and shopping for clothes are being performed online, new opportunities to approach, reach and target your clients are beginning to emerge. Online marketing has a number of benefits, especially for small business owners. It’s fast, efficient, environmental friendly, but most of all, it’s cost-effective!
Besides the obvious benefits of eliminating mailing and printing costs, here are some important factors to take into consideration.
The two-way communication process. The feedback from your consumer makes it easy to adjust and update your online campaign. If you notice that certain copy or images needs to be changed, this is an easy fix. Imagine doing a print campaign and realizing along the way that you’re not getting the results that you’re looking for. The cost and time it would take to make the necessary edits would probably mean a financial setback for your business.
To receive feedback from the consumers while doing an offline marketing campaign requires the consumer to mail or call. People don’t have the time to do this and valuable information gets lost. Online marketing allows clients to have an ongoing communication with the actual company, and most importantly the company can very fast adapt according to their audience.
Another way to track the results of your campaign is to set up SEO keywords. The campaign can get customized and constantly updated based on your consumer’s reaction and feedback.
There are numerous communication channels to be utilized in online marketing. The primary channel is the web, but also e-newsletter, social media platforms audio and video. Speaking of email marketing, there’s nothing easier for a potential client to forward and/or share the email that is being sent out. Today, an increasing number of companies are integrating social media with e-marketing. TopRank’s online marketing blog featured an interesting post about the so-called “Share to Social” (S2S) link t hat can be imbedded in an email marketing campaign. When sending out an email simply include this link, which tells the receiver to instead of just sending or forwarding the email, he or she should also make sure to share it with more people by utilizing social media platforms. Links to the platforms are imbedded in the email, which makes it easy for the receiver to spread the word about your products and/or services!
Tags: blog, cost-effective, email marketing, Marketing, online marketing, print marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, social media, TopRank
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
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