How to Market Your Facebook Business Page

As more of our marketing efforts get centered on e-customers who meet, shop, share and live their virtual lives on various social media, it becomes that much more important to build a brand that connects with them in their comfort zone. Most businesses today build their Facebook profiles to have conversations, announce promotions and be part of customers’ special moments, but it is not easy to elicit responses from an audience that is exposed to so many brands. How can small- to medium-sized businesses use Facebook as a marketing vehicle to effectively engage and interact with their audience? Here are eight tips to do it successfully.

1.       Develop a strategy: According to David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, “Instead of one-way interruption, web marketing is about delivering useful content at precisely the right moment when a buyer needs it.” We need to have a strategy in place that helps us fully explore and utilize the medium, while keeping efforts focused on the goal. To grow your business and fan base, ensure your Facebook wall reflects your short- and long-term goals at all times.

2.       Understand the platform: Facebook as a vehicle is constantly undergoing changes to connect with its audience in the least intrusive manner.

Five Tips for Ordering Online Ads

You can imagine that with our large capacity of more than 1,500 employees and range of digital and print design services, we have really seen it all when it comes to instructions. We’ve gotten scans of handwritten doodles on napkins, three-word requests we have to interpret and creative briefs with about as many pages as a dictionary. It certainly makes each day interesting!

Fortunately, we have learned through all these client encounters a few tips on how to submit orders for online ads to get the best results from Affinity Express and from just about any provider or employee you may use.

1.Logos and Images

• Send logos that have good resolution. Vector artwork in Adobe Illustrator or .EPS format is preferred because these files can be scaled to any size without loss of clarity.
• If this is not possible, at least make sure that the logo you submit is not too small for the specific design you need.
• When ordering animated ads, limit the number of images to avoid blurriness. Ads should only have three or four images because any more than that will mean downgrading the image quality, which can be noticeable.

2. Look and Feel

Communicate how you would like your design to look in general. Other information that is useful is your brand colors or preferences for overall color schemes and main images to feature (or send images or reference samples). For example, “We are an exclusive jewelry maker and this ad needs to look very upscale. Please use icy blues and silvers.”

3. Copy

Write the copy exactly the way you would like to see it written in the ad. So if there if there are punctuation marks, include them. If a certain word or phrase should be in all capitals, state that. Indicate the main headline and differentiate it from the minor copy.

If you are sending in a document from which text should be lifted, be specific on which copy needs to be included, ignored and included if there is space. This helps a designer to prioritize what is important to you.

But remember that designers are not copywriters. They see text as blocks of information to be moved around to create space and can’t edit for you.

4. Animation

• Let us know the elements you would like to see in the first, second, third frame, etc.
• Draw storyboard if you can (but it is not required)
• Tell us how you would like the animation to flow from one screen to the next. In other words

1. Please start off the animation with the image of the car entering the frame.
2. While keeping the car on the screen, the next frame should have the logo along with the main headline.
3. Next bring in the sale price of the vehicle with the original price crossed out in red.
4. The last screen should be the logo again with all the contact information: phone number, address and website.

• If you are referencing one of your previous ads, indicate the information to include and to leave out.

5. Other Elements

Explain what elements, fonts and colors the designer can or cannot use. To illustrate: “Please use one or two heart elements in the same pink shade as the logo.” or “We do not want any fancy fonts in this ad.”

Things to Avoid

Refrain from giving directions are not very specific or can be interpreted in different ways:

Bad:     “The ad does not flow.”

Better:  “The flow of the animation needs to be the logo, the image of the bike, the headline, the minor copy and the contact information along with the website.”

Bad:     “The background needs to be green.

Better:  “Specify what kind of green you would like. If you can include an image with the particular color you have in mind or specify the color swatch number in Photoshop, that is even better.

Bad:     “The text needs to be eye-catching.”

Better:  “Please use a bolder font for the main headline and make the word “free” in all caps and red.”

Bad:     “The design needs to pop.”

Better:  “Please make the logo stand out more compared to the rest of the background. The sale price also needs to be more noticeable, as well as the ‘Click Here’ button.”

Remember that less is more and keep it simple.

• File sizes are limited on the web.
• Space is small.
• People will see your ad for little time.
• The less text the better, so focus on what is most important

Have you been successful providing instructions to designers? What tactics have been especially effective for you? If you design, what are the worst instructions you have received for a project? We’d love to compare notes!

Inbound Marketing: A Cost-Effective Strategy for SMB Marketers

If there’s one thing that holds back most small business marketers, it is tight budgets. Outbound marketing events like trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing are extremely expensive. At the same time, they do not have enough metrics built in to calculate return on investment. Digital marketing is like a knight on a white horse. It offers everything that a marketer could dream of: brand promotion, conversation, business leads, easy entry and exit routes and low costs. With that in mind, here are five easy tactics for successful inbound marketing despite low budgets and small teams.

1.       Blog to exist or exist to blog: 2013 is the year to start what you have been holding off on before now—blogging for your business. Yes, Google has introduced changes in its algorithm yet again, which means there are no quick-fixes like black-hat search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to bring a ton of prospects to your website in no time. The new approach for SEO is to create content that is engaging, interesting and relevant. Blogging is one of the best ways to ensure your website has content that reflects latest trends, industry updates and market dynamics. Such material will attract visitors to your website in droves. It enriches the top of your sales funnel because prospects searching for information about your industry will find your posts on search engine results pages and click through to your site.

After setting up the blog, it’s time to start posting. Topics could range from products in development to employee experiences working at your company to interesting observations and developments taking place in your industry. By interacting with clients and your sales and customer service teams, you could gather questions that you answer in your blog posts. For example, last week someone asked me how could he market his brand on a shoestring budget and here I am answering his question using digital marketing.

Here are the numbers:

Number of average blog posts per month: 4

Total hours spent on researching and writing: 16 to 20 hours per month

ROI: constant influx of inquiries and leads

2.       Provide factual references to potential customers: If I visit a business website for the first time, I would first like to know about projects the company has completed in the past and its clients. So you can convert unsure prospects into hot leads by featuring case studies on your website. Well-written case studies combine masterful story-telling with carefully researched facts, detailed analysis and meaningful solutions to problems that draw in readers.

Case studies benefit businesses by:

• Positioning organizations as credible solutions providers
• Highlighting expertise and industry knowledge
• Sharing benefits of products/services
• Communicating best practices and lessons learned
• Establishing that companies have proactively addressed critical business needs

Customer testimonials play a critical role by giving a stamp of reality to your claims. They also show how much clients trust your company when they say, “We have been using their services since past ten years,” which is a great motivator for visitors who are still trying to make chooses.

3.       Offer product trials: Once prospects have found their way to your site, you need to give them reasons to share information that will allow you to ultimately convert them into leads. The easiest way to do this is to offer free product trials or eBooks in exchange for details. This is done very effectively by Hubspot, which offers eBooks on many of their solutions.

eBooks are much more elaborate than blog posts because they have more examples, graphs and charts to make information understandable and compelling. Because the word limit is much higher for eBooks, you can incorporate multiple perspectives and approaches.

Product trials let potential customers test for a limited period of time with basic functionality. They give your audiences a taste of products or services, with the hope they will like them and come back for full-fledged purchases.

4.       Implement visual calls-to-action: Visits to your website are useless if potential customers are not directed to pages with related content and blog posts that answer their questions. For example, the digital services page on our website has anchor text pointing visitors to our blog posts on the same subjects. Similarly, you could benefit if your social media activity is integrated on your website, as ongoing conversations are a big draw for visitors to share their opinions and eventually make business inquiries.

                                                                     Here is a Twitter engagement blurb on the koozai.com website.

5.       Measure your social media performance: Many of us indulge in long hours of discussions trying to prove that social media is bringing value to our businesses. If you ask me, the best way to check is to simply measure it!

Conversation rate = # of audience comments (or replies) per post

As Avinash says, “One beautiful thing . . . you can measure this on every social channel on the planet. Blog. Twitter. Facebook. Google Plus. YouTube.”

By following the conversations that generate bigger responses, you will be able to determine which stories impact your audience, where your brand touches them, which geographies are attuned to your topics and which groups on LinkedIn like to connect and respond to your discussions. This gives you a deeper understanding of your audience, knowledge about your brand’s strengths and weaknesses and direction on how to provide value to your followers and the industry.

What other marketing tactics and ROI calculation methods do you use to get maximum branding mileage on a tight budget?

13 Trends to Watch for Retailers . . . and Everyone Else

Last week, I attended the annual conference of the National Retail Federation in New York, Retail’s Big Show 2013, (and “big” does not begin to describe the scope of this event!). There were many informative sessions but I was really struck by the insight of Marian Salzman, CEO of Havas PR North America. I was initially skeptical but then quickly realized there are already indicators of the thirteen things that she predicted are around the corner. Most of us are probably just not attuned enough to pick up on them.

Read on and start thinking about how you can leverage these trends to the advantage of your business or at least mitigate any potential issues.

1.         You and me = “co”. The prefix “co” will be everywhere. We will seek to “co-parent” and “co-produce”. To be a “co-preneur” versus an “entrepreneur” will be the new aspiration. We’ll also push to a higher level of intimacy with others, transitioning from “coworkers” to “co-creators.” Retailers need to present their offering to capitalize on this.

2.         Make solutions, not problems. Don’t talk negatively. Instead, frame issues in terms of how to solve them. For example, retailers should say: “You didn’t know you needed this product or service. Here you go!” Increasingly, people do not want negative events and approaches. So talk less trash about competitors and place an accent on the positive aspects of products and solutions. Find your happy place.

3.         Austerity living with double-dip frugality. There will be more sites like Renttherunway.com and options like Zipcars. People will aspire to a fraction of ownership or engagement. Notice how the storage business is booming: it’s because we have more things than we can fit into our homes. As a result, we are starting to ask ourselves, “Do I really need to own this stuff?” We will still buy electronics but there must be a positive message about them. And content will migrate from paper we can hold in our hands to digital content we can access anytime, anywhere, anyhow. That is why the tablet is the new “cloud catcher.”

4.         Alternative economies. Cash is taxable. Trading and bartering will become more popular, as will dumpster diving and the freegan movement. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the traditional retail model. Cash will still be used but will come with the expectation of a premium-level service or product.

5.         Rethinking imperfections. Photoshop, cosmetic dentistry and even SAT tutors transform how we look, smile and perform on standardized tests. We live in a world where products are showcased in the retail environment and everything is perfect. But perfection is not human. We want to be part of something bigger than ourselves and allowed to be more real. We see this with the Dove campaign for real beauty but apparel stores still have mannequins with unattainable figures.

Ads Bring Color to the Winter Season

As most of us experience a white landscape in winter, there is certainly one place where our clients like to add color: their print ads. White and blue hues convey the mood of this season and symbols like snowflakes, trees covered in snow and houses with snow-packed roofs create an evocative winter backdrop for the ads.

This season, our creative team put together winter-themed ads that were colorful and vibrant to attract potential customers. Here are some of our favorites.

This ad by Attridge Transportation explains viewers could contribute to the community by becoming school bus drivers. The cartoon characters and use of primary colors add to the charm and reinforce that the drivers would be serving children.

The ad by Tropical North highlights one of the many things that we love about winter: adventure sports!

Adam Burnham Talks About the Future of Multi-Media Publishing

Earlier this week, we announced that multimedia publishing veteran Adam Burnham joined Affinity Express as vice president of interactive services. I was fortunate to meet him in person and had an opportunity to ask him some of the same questions many of you are asking yourselves and your colleagues about the industry, transitioning to digital services providers and models that work. Here is what we talked about.

What are the top challenges and/or obstacles for publishers as they work to transition from print only to multi-media publishing?

The economics of the business are in a constant state of transition. The classified business has retracted to become a small minority of revenue for publishers and the future of legals and preprints are in question now. Publishers have to be ready to adapt their business to what their audience and to what their advertisers want. I am in no way suggesting print will disappear; as I do not think that will be the case. But it will be a different business. I fear those who are unwilling to adapt may not survive.

What ideas or approaches have you seen work to ease this transition?

The good news is there are a number of companies taking very innovative steps and trying new things. That is the best practical approach because, if any one company had it figured out, everyone else would be copying the model. But at the core, you have to sell advertisers things they want to buy. I believe those publishers that are constantly feeding the sales organization new products and platforms, and are willing to find success through experimentation with a fail fast mentality, will be the most successful. I typically find the smaller the company, the more fluid and dynamic it can be. The digital agency concept is sweeping the publishing business but few are fully committed to it. Companies need to start thinking about what they are today and envision what they will be tomorrow. Then they should build plans accordingly.

Which digital services are being embraced earliest by SMBs and why?

I would say there are two main categories: search engine marketing (SEM) and digital services. Small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are dedicating a significant part of their overall expense budgets (not just marketing) to building out dynamic solutions and customer acquisition models online. Those publishers offering website design and development, coupled with search engine optimization, pay per click, maps and social solutions are able to get in front of virtually any business. And this is what SMBs want to talk about first. You can then layer on additional marketing opportunities across all platforms. But they need this foundation.

Is it more effective to offer standalone services or packaged offerings and why?

The more comprehensive the offerings, the better they are for SMBs when it comes to time, price and relationship. Spreading money across multiple channels doesn’t allow them to properly lever their total marketing spend to get the best possible pricing. Plus, publishers that can look to offer more than just one or two platforms, will find the relationship with the SMBs will be richer and last longer.

What is the advantage multimedia publishers have in local markets as compared to pure plays and other offerings?

Multimedia publishers have the single most important advantage: an established, in-market sales force with existing relationships and a local brand. This above anything else distinguishes them from any pure play competitor.

How do multimedia publishers have to think about their audiences now versus five or ten years ago?

They have to think in terms of total audience as opposed to individual segments. The reach of a local publisher is greater than it has ever been when you combine print, online, mobile and social channels. Offering a collective solution with robust targeting capabilities is a huge opportunity.

How can publishers prepare their teams for this transition and train them to up-sell the additional services?

They need to take action. Stop talking about what you want to do and stop discussing what you can’t do. Focus on what you CAN and WILL do. Hire specialists to work with the existing sales staff that also will cultivate new business on their own. Remove complacency from the current sales organization and look to serve the market as a whole. Stop constricting yourself by what you don’t know.

In your experience helping Digital First Media turn the company around, did anything surprise you when working to drive digital growth and launch new platforms and services?

I would not call it a surprise, but more of a challenge. You walk a fine line of being aggressive and driving change versus taxing the bandwidth of the local sales organization. I think you can only fit so much on one plate and it takes time for things to really click. Make sure you have proper support functions in place so sales people can sell.

What’s the best advice you could offer to publishers eager to offer digital services to their advertisers?

You can build the best solution, create the best marketing material, have the best training and sell the hell out of it. But if you cannot fulfill it, you will fail. Be overly-prepared to support the sales effort and partner with companies that are strong where you are weak.

What questions would you want to ask Adam? Do you have any perspective on helping publishers transition from print-only to multi-channel? What tactics or approach have worked?

About Adam Burnham

As vice president of interactive for Affinity Express, Adam focuses on digital product mix, workflow and fulfillment solutions, helping drive both top and bottom line improvement. Previously, he led the digital first sales strategy at Journal Register Company and Digital First Media; driving industry leading growth rates since January 2010.

Adam runs at a very aggressive pace to capture larger shares of marketing dollars with businesses of all sizes; local, regional and national. He specializes in growing revenue in both traditional and non-traditional ways, as well as in developing and integrating defined sales strategies.

Build Your Blog to Attract New Business

We all love getting traffic to our blogs, but we sometimes miss the larger picture. We forget to focus on how many of our readers are actually potential buyers that will contribute to our bottom lines. On the Affinity Express blog, we discuss a large array of subjects under the heading of marketing and design. Sometimes, there are posts that generate huge amounts of traffic but are not directly linked to services offered by us. This leads to a high volumes from people who are not necessarily looking for our services. This traffic is not irrelevant, as it comes from the small- to medium-sized business community that we serve but we still want to know which topics and content appeal to those who mean business.

Here are some tips on how to blog for business by developing content to attract buyer traffic and the metrics that help us understand whether visits are casual or have a business purpose.

• Go beyond targeting keywords: To build volume in their business blog, many marketers incorporate relevant keywords for their products and services to get better ranking on various search engines. One way to do this is to try the Google Keyword Tool to know what words, phrases and search terms people are using to find information related to your business. Keywords also help get the blog posts featured in social media discussions and online directories so you can get backlinks and referral traffic.

To Blog or Not to Blog in 2013

Blogging started in the 1990s when people used this platform to share their interests, hobbies and thoughts online. The goal was to connect with like-minded individuals and freely express opinions. Today, blogging has become a crucial publishing and marketing tool with an astonishing number of people using it and an even greater number following it. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 31 million bloggers as of July 2012.

Here are some more business blogging stats from business2community.com:

• 60% of businesses have a blog
• 35% of businesses post at least once a month
• B2C companies who blog regularly see an 88% increase in median monthly leads and B2B companies who blog see a 67% increase in leads

An infographic by Blogger.org has some more interesting facts about blogging:

While the importance of having a business blog is well-established, it’s hard for SMBs not to be overwhelmed with the constant pressure of looking for something new to publish, while handling a myriad of other tasks and responsibilities. How do SMBs find enough content to keep a blog interesting and current on the latest industry trends? Here are some tips that could help you generate a steady stream of ideas.

• Remember that change is the only constant. It is a good practice for small- and medium-sized businesses to keep track of what’s hot and what’s trending. SMB marketers needs to be in touch with the realities of their customers’ problems and aspirations to know which developments and topics would interest and get them to visit the blog often. At Affinity Express, we understand our clients’ desire to produce better creative. That’s why we publish blog posts featuring our best ads for holidays and different business categories. We also produce regular posts on marketing tactics for the future and discuss which tools are most helpful for our target audience.
• Become a credible news source. Many companies, especially those that are engineering-driven, treat their blogs as nothing more than a public relations outlet to introduce products or announce initiatives. In other cases, companies use this interactive platform to provide how-to information for products and services. But the real objective is to get people to regard your blog as a source of credible information. To do this, you have to share industry updates and trends and add a personal touch by including your views on the news. Your posts will be a hit if you can answer “yes” about your blog posts to as many of these questions as possible.
  • Is this a new development about which you have unique knowledge or details?
  • Does your company or the author have a position of authority in the industry on the topic?
  • Is it breaking news? If not, then are you sharing it with your views, which are different from the general consensus? Is it an event where you are one of the leading presenters?
  • Is the information in your post directly relevant to your audience? Does it solve their problems and improve their lives or businesses?
  • Does your post offer an idea that is new to your industry?
• Look ahead and forecast. People always look for ways to stay one step ahead of their peers and know what is coming, so insightful predictions get a lot of attention. Or your blog could discuss small changes or ideas that could lead to big transformations. An example of this kind of forecasting on our blog is this post that discusses the importance analytics with creativity that will shape the marketing of tomorrow.
• Keep it democratic. Does your corporate blog provide space for readers to submit ideas and suggestions? As our readers become more involved and vocal about their likes, concerns and preferences, asking for their inputs on what should we publish on our blogs makes good sense.

One of the most interactive companies, Playstation, has a section on Playstation.Blog where users can submit and vote on ideas for improving PlayStation’s products. As of now, the most popular idea on the site suggests adding the ability to talk to friends using the PS3 Bluetooth headset even if they are playing other games. The idea has received over 25,000 votes. Inputs such as these have incredible value to businesses.

• Build in fun. Establishing a strong relationship with your clients and prospects requires an element of fun, in the same way that environments which inspire employees and allow freedom of expression seem to have the highest productivity (a great example of this is Google). Consumers look for companies and service providers that are excited about what they do and spread the enthusiasm. Incorporate humor and the best of your personality into your posts and readers will feel positive about your blog. Plus, it is a great way to start conversations and strengthen connections with your audience.

What other blogging tactics have worked for your business? Tell us the sources that you look up when planning your blog posts.

Happy New Year 2013!

To our employees, clients, prospects and partners, wherever you reside in the world, we wish you success and joy in the new year and beyond!

New Year’s Themed Ads Get Fired Up

With 2012 coming to a close, many of us look for ways to thanks our clients. It is an opportunity to stand out with special offers, interesting designs and strong messaging. As usual, our team also got quite a few design projects with a New Year’s Eve theme and we completed them fast and got positive reviews. Here are a few of our favorites from this season.

There is no doubt this is a New Year’s ad. The font is festive and it is complemented by fireworks, the single most used graphic element for this holiday. The result is an ad that gets viewers thinking about their plans for the big night!

An ad for a New Year Eve’s party from the Ramada Palms is designed to make the party look exciting and fun with playful fonts. Champagne glasses are another traditional New Year’s graphic and the ad carries over the color of the champagne to the year, prices and the special offer.

Another ad by Kim Roberts & Allen Title Company also incorporates fireworks in a simple design. It uses yet another festive font that you might see on a party invitation. The content of the ad stresses safety, which is a smart strategy for a company in the business of reassuring clients by providing title insurance and closing services for real estate transactions.

This New Year ad by Peerless Products is beautiful and also ties in well to the company’s business: windows. This simple black and white design gets the point across that you can trust Peerless Products to keep you warm and safe in the winter but there is no sales language or any products listed. The magical letters appearing in the sky make it look like a page from an old storybook.

If you are working on an ad to tie in with the New Year’s holiday, you can’t go wrong by choosing a creative, script font, incorporating fireworks or champagne and using a black, white and gold color scheme. And be sure to keep it simple and uncluttered. This is a time of celebration and looking ahead to what we hope is a bright future.

Have you seen any great New Year’s ads yet? Do you remember any from previous years that resonated with you? What other graphics have you incorporated in your holiday ads?

Affinity Express wishes you all the best in 2013 and beyond!