Archive for the ‘Small Business News’ 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 »
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
 In terms of New Year’s Resolutions, no one had it worse than President Barack Obama. With a laundry list of problems left behind by the prior administration and the pressure on in the court of public opinion, then President-Elect Obama had an awful lot of resolutions to keep–most of them made during his campaign. (See the funniest of them as promised by Barack Obama on the Late Show with David Letterman.)
Almost six months have gone by since Barack Obama took office….so how does the new President rate in keeping his New Year’s Resolutions?
Well, that depends on who you talk to. It seems there’s a lot of debate as to how the President is keeping up with his campaign promises…but for a clear and (mostly) unbiased opinon, check out PolitiFact.com’s aptly named “Obamameter.”
To create the Obamameter, the political gurus at PolitiFact compiled 500 promises made by the Obama-Biden campaign. Politifact is tracking the development of each of these five hundred problems by breaking them down into six categories, including “Promise Kept,” “Promise Broken,” “Comprimise” and “In the Works.” Politi Fact has categorized a whopping 398 promises as “No Action.” But, don’t forget President Obama has four years to complete the full 500.
So, how accurate is the Obamameter? Well PolitiFact.com, the self-proclaimed “Truth-o-meter” created and maintained by the staff of the St. Petersburgh (FL) Times, did win the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting, which is no small feat. Still not convinced? Check out a report conducted by PBS’ “The News Hour” that discusses the process behind the Obamameter.
So, is President Obama following through? I guess the best answer I can give you is read the facts, decide for yourself and leave comments here to get the conversation started.
Tags: Barack Obama, Obamameter, PolitiFact, President Obama, St. Petersburg Times
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Sunday, May 10th, 2009
Businesses that survive, and even thrive, during a recession aren’t afraid to be innovative and take risks. At a time when your consumers and clients are pinching their wallets closed even tighter, it is crucial to establish a strong brand presence and highlight what makes your business stand out.
Enter social media.
“Social media” is one of today’s hottest buzz words. But, what exactly is social media? And are people actually using it?
Social media is a cost-effective online marketing and networking tool that takes the form of several online networking outlets. (Think Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) These networks are the newest portals to reach your target audience and capture their attention using the websites that they visit most.
By connecting with your target audience on their wavelength, not only are you given extra (and mostly free!) opportunities to reinforce your message, but you’re also showing your customers that you understand what they like and can relate to them on a more personal level.
So, does this actually work? Here are some stats that may open your eyes to the perks of social media:
Still not convinced? Well, here are three tips to help you get your feet wet with social media.
1. Create a Social Media Strategy
Like any traditional marketing campaign, you want to ensure that your brand message is consistent and accurate across all social media platforms. By making a social media roadmap, you can understand what social media outlets attract your target consumers and where your opportunities are strongest.
2. Start small and build out
Rather than opening accounts on every social media platform and not utilizing them, begin by creating accounts that make the most sense for your brand. Optimize these accounts and, once you feel comfortable handling a few social media outlets, start to expand the scope of your social media.
3. Begin conversations
The whole point of utilizing social media is to interact with you target consumer and engage customers to learn more about your brand. So, don’t be shy! Get right in there and get the conversation about your brand started!
During tough times it’s more crucial than ever to reach out to your customers and show them how your brand outshines the competition. Stay tuned for the Perks Consulting team to take you through today’s most popular social media outlets and give you tips on how to navigate the complex world of social media. So, get innovative, get creative and have fun with social media!
Tags: economic crisis, recession, social media, viral marketing
Posted in Marketing, Small Business News | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 4th, 2009
On May 1, President Obama made the speech that social media specialists have long been awaiting. He enlisted the Powers the Be to “reach beyond the halls of government” in order to connect citizens to the new Administration.
Social media quickly became the topic of conversation and the White House’s efforts to get with the times were specifically outlined. White House 2.0, as the project has become known, is the effort of the Obama administration to reach out to the people using the online channels that everyday Americans visit most.
You can now find the White House on:
Will other world leaders follow suit? Do you think social media will enter other “halls of government”?
Tags: Barack Obama, President Obama, social media, white house 2.0
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Monday, April 27th, 2009
 The Obama-Biden campaign was a clear confirmation that we as citizens hold a tremendous amount of power and, when we unite, that power creates change. Uniting an entire nation was no easy task, but the use of emerging social media in the campaign was the most effective way to connect a nation. By leveraging the power of the crowd, the Obama-Biden campaign took political awareness and civic engagement to new heights.
The Obama-Biden campaign was able to unite 5 million “friends” across 15 social media platforms, with 3 million “friends” on Facebook alone. When CNN and Facebook teamed together on Inauguration Day, the result was over 136 million page views by 3:30 PM! MyBarackObama.com was an incredible, user-centric tool to put the power into the hands of its 2 million users, while attracting 8.5 million monthly visitors. The scope and scale of the Obama-Biden campaign is unmatched and it was the power of social media that made these results possible.
Now, the successful (and soon to be historic) campaign has come to a close. The hard work of the campaign team team has paid off and the first, and most difficult, 100 days of the new administration have come to a close.
So, how can President Obama move social media into the White House?
The first and most logical step has already been taken: YouTube. The Obama Adminstration’s use of YouTube to directly address citizens about new developments of the economic crisis harkens back to Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats during the Great Depression. The technology may be different, but the idea is still the same.
Upgrading the White House Twitter is a great way to increase civic engagement and interest, especially among voters 18-24 who make up the largest population of uncast votes.
Perhaps the President could open an account on Delicious, a social bookmarking tool? This could be utilized to bookmark any important press about what the Obama Administration is up to, as well as press about important legislation.
WhiteHouse.Gov has done a great job updating their website and blog. But, the sad reality is, how many people check White House.gov on a regular basis? I would say not many. The White House website could also benefit from using social media to reach out to the largest amount of Americans in the most efficient way.
Why wouldn’t President Obama leverage the power of his cultural presence through social media to keep American citizens informed about what’s going on the world? His personality is the hook and social media is the platform. Isn’t it time for his message to be heard, loud and clear, through all possible media to all corners of the world?
Tags: Barack Obama, President Obama, social media, White House
Posted in Small Business News | No Comments »
Friday, April 10th, 2009
 As discussed in a previous blog, women are willing (and in some cases a little too willing) to break out the wallet for beauty during troubled times. Still having trouble keeping your beauty business afloat? Here are a few quick tips about how to keep women looking gorgeous during a recession.
1. Give your marketing a makeover.
Think about the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign. This is a classic example of how marketing can make a huge impact on your business. By taking a simple bar of soap and packaging it in a big idea about how we view beauty, Dove was able to leverage powerful marketing to make a huge splash in the beauty industry.
So, how can you apply this to your beauty business? Give your brand a boost. By repackaging your services, you can find new ways to add value to existing services. And, endless technological possibilities provide us with endless cost-effective alternatives to spread the word about your services.
2. Differentiate your beauty business from your competitors.
Show your clients that your business is the one to choose. Making your business stand out from the crowd is essential when times are tight. Research of your competition and create ways to outshine them. Keep an idea of your target customer in mind and think about what they need but aren’t getting from your competitors.
3. Create an environment of relaxation.
With all the stress caused by the recession, what your clients really want is to relax. Make your spa the place women go to get away from it all. Try serving beverages or snacks to your guests. Play relaxing music. Use aromatherapy or candles. Find ways to relax your clients by appealing to their five senses. This will show that you are attentive to their needs.
What draws people in more than anything? Free stuff! By giving your guests trial sizes of their favorite products, you will entice them to return for more. Make personalized recommendations to get clients hooked on your products and services. If you’re tight on products try giving clients a trial service, like a free five-minute massage.
Create a weekly special, bonus or coupon. Giving your clients a discount will draw in new customers and providing a “tenth visit free” card will keep them coming back.
5. Network, network, network!
Attending networking events is the fastest way to meet new clients and also provides you with an opportunity to talk about your services in-person. Everyone loves looking pretty, so the services you provide could easily be worked into a casual conversation.
Reach out to clients you haven’t heard from in a while. With today’s internet-obsessed culture, very few people are actually picking up the phone to call clients. Giving your past customers a quick call allows you the opportunity to update them on new promotions or services, and it personalizes the customer service interaction.
 The beauty industry is a great place to be during a recession, since people turn to beauty as a form of therapy when times get rough. In fact, careers in the beauty field were listed on HRWorld’s list of Top 25 Careers to Pursue during a Recession.
So, go the extra mile to remind your clients that just because times are tough doesn’t mean they have to look it.
Tags: beauty, fitness, health, luxury, Marketing, recession
Posted in Small Business News | No Comments »
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