2013: The Year of Digital Brands

Sometimes I ask myself if “Digital” is a type of media or is it a congruence of all media. In the past, we would paint on canvases, shoot and store photos on film and listen to music on records. Now “digital” brings all these capabilities together and merges them to appeal to all senses. It allows you to see videos, read case studies and watch product demos, listen to songs, informative webinars and podcasts as well as touch to explore, interact and share your views across the globe. And as far as the customers are concerned, when they want something, they want it personalized, and they want it right away. Only the online environment can meet these kinds of demands.

Many of us realized the importance and started exploring the full potential of digital. While Standard Media Index (SMI) recorded a rise of 4% in U.S. ad spending during the first two months of 2013 versus the same period in 2012, digital spending (including online display, video, search, social, mobile, email, etc.), accounts for the second-biggest share of media spending, representing more than a fifth (21.7%) of the buys made by the major agencies. As a category, digital media buys expanded 16% during the first two months, led by a 12% increase in premium display, a 6% gain in search and a 23% surge on ad networks.

Marketers are increasingly investing a greater chunk of their marketing budget in digital because it includes better metrics, targeted outreach and the ability to connect with consumers in their comfort zone. But another factor is also working in digital’s favor: savings.

As overall marketing budgets increase by an average of 6%, as researched by Gartner, much of the increase in digital spending will come from marketers reinvesting cost savings. When asked how they were funding their digital marketing programs, 41% answered that they were saving money by replacing traditional tactics with digital tactics and that this savings was funding further investment. Another 28% responded that they decreased traditional marketing budgets to free up funds for digital.

However, an even more intriguing trend is the role brands are playing online by investing in building and nurturing their digital identities to have a much wider reach in the virtual world than the physical world. Here are some important steps being taken:

• Creating and sharing great content: Companies are building digital content that becomes the driver of audience engagement and eventually revenue opportunities. Successful online marketers begin by understanding what can capture their target customers’ attention and then weaving in good stories and content that viewers will want to share. Red Bull is one of the brands that used this tactic successfully with their “death defying jump.”

Great content also has a spin-off effect. Successful content marketing experts use COPE: Create Once, Publish Everywhere. While this suggests content should be pushed out on multiple platforms, it also means that content which might not be valuable to one audience in its current form, such as a press release about a senior member joining a company, can be spun into an interesting blog post, which shares the person’s vision, experiences and take on industry trends that many readers may find informative.

• Using social media to extend brand reach: Another big step for brands is going all out and embracing social media to extend their reach. This is a wonderful vehicle that helps in spreading news, creating awareness and providing an environment for meaningful two-way dialogues with target audiences.

A good example was this year’s London Fashion Week, which used digital technology and social media to reach out to the growing segment of shoppers. More than 21 shows at the fashion event were broadcast live on the LFW YouTube channel, of which 60% were live-streamed to the LFW website. Brands, publications and designers used social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to share their experiences of fashion week. Participants on Pinterest created a photographic diary of brands and fashion magazines, designers and celebrities; giving the equivalent of “VIP” access to the shows. Twitter trends enabled fashionistas to not only get the opinions of fashion leaders and celebrities, but to also give their own feedback—that is what social media is all about.

• Using visuals for more engaging stories: In their digital journey, brands are slowly but surely evolving to build visual montages that feature everything from their daily accomplishments to major victories. They are using image-driven networks such as Pinterest and Instagram and making compelling visual updates to customer-centric platforms such as Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. It is a great opportunity for brands to go beyond traditional “push” marketing tactics and to create videos that address multiple audiences and a variety of consumer needs. A great example is Best Buy that uses its YouTube channel cleverly by using the logo and corporate color palette perfectly for branding.

Visitors are greeted with six videos to choose from and can easily scroll through a variety of video content with a blue slider beneath the featured videos. The channel also shares links to the Best Buy website and social media profiles and highlights their Daily Deals.

It is no wonder why marketers are scrambling to get their brands on a media that offers a vast array of sensory experiences. As business leaders want each dollar spent on marketing to be linked back to sales figures, the need for accountability has accelerated the speed of going digital as this medium allows every activity to be measured, in real time, down to a single click.

So, have you gone ahead with marketing and positioning your organization on digital platforms? How have these efforts affected your brand reach? Share the ups and downs of your digital journey with us.

Mobile Marketing Adoption by SMBs

As the world around us goes mobile, businesses face a new challenge of adopting this channel to reach and interact with their target audience. While SMBs have a hard time grasping the hows and whys with their limited means and resources, many believe this could be a blessing in disguise for them.

xAd and Telmetrics recently released a Mobile Path-To-Purchase study, conducted by Nielsen, which explored the growing importance of local mobile search. The study determined the top 3 reasons that consumers have for engaging with local mobile ads:

• Locally relevant: the ad is for a business that is nearby and easy to access
• Local offers coupons/promotions: presented with multiple business options, the ad presents a deal that the consumer can’t get with the others
• Features a known brand: like any type of advertising, consumers are often drawn to businesses they know and trust

According to a report from Borrell Associates, “2013 Local Advertising Outlook: Get Ready for the Rebound,”U.S. local digital advertising will reach $24.5  billion in 2013, to take a 25% share of total local ad budgets.

Of those who have used mobile advertising, a solid 83% said they were at least somewhat likely to use it again in 2013.

Broken out from online spending, 25% of SMBs planned to increase mobile budgets this year.

A continuous wave of new statistics are illustrating that consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices for local information. This was also confirmed by Google in one of its announcements that as much as 50 percent of mobile search via its platforms is for local information.

Mobile is where today’s consumers already are, but local businesses are not. So, what do the local businesses need to do to integrate mobile in their marketing communication strategies? I took inputs from my colleague Adam Burnham, vice president of interactive services, to understand the path forward for mobile.

• Which mobile ad features produce the best responses for advertisers today?

Just like most advertising,  clean and simple campaigns with clear calls to action will produce the best results. And mobile allows great levels of targeting to get messages to the right audiences.

• Which mobile marketing tactics have the highest adoption rates among the advertisers?

There are three products within the mobile platform where I see the best tactical adoption and execution. Those are mobile banner display, mobile banner interstitials and mobile sites. All three work well together and complement a diverse media buy.

Marketers have been targeting local buyers for years with publishing news about deals and store openings and expansions in local newspapers. The next step is mobile banner advertising that provides targeted reach and interactive messages tailored to suit individual tastes and preferences. Just make sure to design ads that clearly state the offers, give clear directions for interested buyers and have decent analytics installed to analyze campaign reports to help you get instant feedback and act quickly.

• Which business sectors are using mobile marketing effectively? Which types of businesses can benefit the most from mobile marketing?

This is what is so great with mobile. Many think you need to be in a specific business or serve a certain type of customer for mobile advertising to be effective. The reality is that it will work for pretty much anyone. You should absolutely make sure you have a mobile-optimized site where you are driving traffic through mobile search and mobile display options. The mobile platform is growing faster than anything we’ve seen before, which means more people will access it.

• How does mobile marketing help publishers target the local SMB advertisers?

Local publishers have a leg up just as they do on the web, as they are delivering a content-rich experience for their audiences. People are already visiting their mobile sites to access the content they want, when they want it. That gives them immediate leverage and opportunity to serve the local marketplace through display advertising options. They can then build from there to offer additional mobile products including landing pages, mobile sites and search.

• How can publishers integrate mobile into their multimedia services offering?

Leveraging the mobile platform as part of complete offerings is very necessary. Publishers have to look beyond strictly web-based sales opportunities. And they have to accept that their audiences will be migrating to mobile devices. You can’t fight that. Publishers need to embrace it and build the right offerings to serve the needs of their advertisers. Mobile aligns very well with print, web and social.

Though many studies show people on the go engage with mobile ads and convert into customers at high rates, many local business owners still have skepticism about mobile as the latest “next big thing.” So I tried to understand from our technical expert, Ray Sheerer, about some key tips that SMBs could use before going live with mobile marketing.

•  What should an advertiser keep in mind before starting to use mobile advertising?

Before the mobile campaign begins, geographic location is usually considered the most important piece of targeting criteria for a small- to medium-sized business. Next, the advertiser needs to choose an ad serving platform either through a publisher or on their own. The ad serving platform delivers these mobile ads to mobile websites, microsites and apps that are part of the ad network. The ad networks extend the reach of the mobile ads and allow the SMB to specially geo-target the ad delivery. The advertiser should also request reports that display daily metrics about impressions, clicks and conversion rates. These reports are essential to measure the performance of the mobile advertising.

• Does the call-to-action of a mobile ad need to be different from an online ad?

The call to action of a mobile ad needs to be more clear and concise due to the smaller ad size and reduced space for text and graphics. More important than the mobile ad is the mobile landing page that corresponds with the overall campaign promotion/message. A clear call to action with a click-to-call or a simple lead generation form could highly increase the ad ROI.

Mobile ads can use some innovative ideas to improve engagement. One example is to run click-to-call campaign that initiates the mobile phone’s call function after the user clicks on the banner ad. There is also a click-to-SMS functionality that can be combined with a number of techniques, including the ability to SMS back to the user a mobile web link. These actions reduce the time to reach the seller and share your query. Click-to-download is another mobile-specific choice that is popular for app download campaigns. This call to action takes the user directly to the app store where they can download the advertised app onto their mobile device. Another example of a mobile call to action would be the use of QR codes.

• Which mobile features are being utilized by marketers most effectively today?

SMS opt-in is becoming one of the most effective mobile marketing tools. The messages are delivered to the consumer because they requested them and are typically not viewed as being annoying and unsolicited. QR codes are also being utilized to drive traffic to mobile websites and mobile landing pages. The consumer scans the QR code and is automatically directed to a URL without having to type. The use of call to action buttons for calling, SMS, mapping and emailing is also effective because these are one touch functions to allow the consumer to contact or find the advertiser.

As the main purpose of adopting any technology is to better achieve your organization goals, mobile fulfills those criteria by reaching out to your customers in their comfort zone and initiating interactions that have high chances of resulting into business transactions.

How do you foresee integrating your advertising efforts with mobile technology?

Technologies and Trends to Rock the Future of Mobile Marketing

Is your mobile phone becoming your new email inbox? Are the lines between between static e-mails, real-time tweets and instant brand messages going to blur further in future? Kevin McNulty, President and CEO of NetWeave Social Networking says, “There’s no doubt that the proliferation of smartphones and tablets will continue in the future, making the mobile experience more important. For some, their mobile device has largely replaced their laptop or desktop for browsing experiences. If you as a business are not addressing this trend, you risk being left behind completely as web marketing goes mobile.”

How will this impact the retail scene? Deloitte predicts that within three years “mobile influence” will be directly determining 19%, or $689 billion, of U.S. retail sales. So we decided to take a closer look to see which technologies will prove to be game-changers in the near future and how will they impact small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) trying to engage their target customers.

• Location-based mobile advertising (LBA): This integrates with location-based services and the technology pinpoints consumers’ whereabouts to provide location-specific advertisements on their mobile devices. LBA is the most personal and direct marketing channel today that allows marketers to reach a specific target audience by creating campaigns aimed at age, gender, income and lifestyle segments. Celtra’s Q3 2012 Rich Media Monitor Report last December found that, in Q3, the average rich media mobile ad engagement rate was 13.7 percent, nearly a one percent increase over Q2. Location-based features have overtaken branding and presentation with an 18.8 percent engagement rate. Matevz Klanjsek, co-promoter and Chief Product Officer of Celtra said, “Gaming, location-based and social media features in the mobile ads engage consumers in a meaningful way, providing an essential and often missing link between typically overcrowded upper and lower funnels.” Mobile location data reveals the behavioral insights of audiences based on actual consumer activity. As a result, store owners or restaurateurs can find out where users shop and eat by using both real-time and historical data. They can use this information to design and share their promotional offers. Such targeted activity translates into real customer results.
• Near Field Communication: Another trending mobile technology is known as Near Field Communication (NFC) and is a form of contact-less communication between devices like smartphones or tablets, which allows users to wave their smartphones over NFC compatible devices to send information without needing to touch devices together or go through multiple steps setting up connections. Mobile users can use this technology to integrate credit cards, subway tickets and paper coupons all into one device so they can board trains, pay for groceries, redeem coupons or store loyalty points. They can even exchange contact information with the wave of their smartphones. It helps retailers by tying offline shopping with the online experience and drives people who tap on products in their stores to additional collateral on their websites. This increases loyalty and conversion, as faster transaction times mean less waiting in line and happier customers.
• Mobile Visual Search: Mobile phones have evolved into powerful image and video processing devices equipped with high-resolution cameras, color displays and hardware-accelerated graphics.

Designing Landing Pages that Convert

Landing pages are made with the purpose of making the page visitors perform a specific action that gets them into the sales funnel. The action can vary from downloading information to completing contact forms to making actual purchases. Regardless of the desired type of engagement, landing pages play a pivotal role in digital advertising. You can have the most eye-catching ads that drive tons of traffic but if the associated landing pages are confusing and vague there isn’t much chance to convert those visitors into leads.

Here are the 7 must-dos while designing landing pages.

1.          Put your best foot forward: Curiosity is one of the main factors that bring in visitors to a landing page but they are probably wary of going further and must be convinced. That’s why landing pages should be built to gently unveil the best deals with the visitors, extend their stay by showing glimpses of your coolest inventory and coaxing them to buy or at least leave their contact details so your team can follow up.

2.          Ensure consistent messaging: Landing pages need to be designed to integrate with the content of campaigns. If visitors are lured by your communications and then see different offers, they will feel disoriented at best and cheated at worse. In fact, this could turn people off your brand completely. You should also keep in mind that sharing too little information can be dangerous. Include all the relevant facts.

3.          Write clear and concise headlines: The headlines are the first thing noticed by the visitors to landing pages.

The Changing Face of Retail in 2013

Amazon, Crocs, Kohl’s, Lululemon were recognized by the National Retail Federation Board as innovators and leaders in retail industry because they successfully distinguished themselves as pioneers through the use of new, innovative or imaginative techniques, formats or services that are sustainable and can evolve with the industry. These awards celebrate individuals/businesses who have achieved international recognition for excellence in their native country and internationally.

Following the lead of these star performers, the retail industry strives to respond to consumers as they begin to get back their shopping appetite. Marketers look for newer, better ways to grow their brands and take advantage of marketing opportunities to better compete. Here’s a countdown of the top six trends that will drive the retail industry this year:

1.       Social commerce: Where are people spending majority of their time online? Social media. Retailers have recognized this and integrated social media and e-commerce. A recent survey from social media curation platform provider Mass Relevance revealed some interesting facts:

• 59 percent of respondents reported they are more likely to trust brands that integrate social media.
• 75 percent of social networkers talk about brands; for 18-34 year-olds it is 91 percent.
• 62 percent are more likely to engage with social brands.
• 60 percent are more likely to share the messages of brands that integrate social experiences into their own digital properties, such as a brand websites or mobile apps.
• Where social commerce is concerned, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) have already made a purchase based on social content; that was true of 76 percent of 18-34 year-olds.

Retail websites are using the power of social media to drive sales. The model is designed in a way where shoppers browse through the shopping website, share their favorite products with friends and family through a social media plug-in like Facebook, Pinterest, etc., and get reviews that help them decide whether to buy or not. Consumers pay more attention to brands that create social media experiences and spend more time on websites when social media is integrated.

2.       Using mobile to research and buy: Mobile has invaded retail sector at a mind-boggling speed. In a short time, QR codes, mobile coupons, mTickets, and in-store guide apps have become the norm of retailing. The technology has transferred the power into customers’ hands with the ability to search for product information, post reviews, look up store locations and make actual purchases. A recent Shop.org survey found that nearly half of retailers have an optimized mobile sites or smartphone apps, with 16 percent planning to increase their investment in mobile technology.

Here are some facts from digby.com on how mobile is influencing today’s retail industry:

• 80 percent of smartphone owners want more mobile-optimized product information while they’re shopping in stores.
• 68 percent of men are likely to make purchases thanks to mobile ads, whereas 58 percent of women are likely to make a purchase. Further, men are more likely than women to redeem mobile coupons (35 percent versus 27 percent).
• Mobile coupons are most popular at grocery stores (41 percent of mobile shoppers said they used coupons there), department stores (41 percent), and clothing stores (39 percent). At electronics stores, the majority (read reviews (73 percent), compare prices (71 percent), and scan QR codes (57 percent).
• 80 percent of mobile users prefer locally-relevant advertising and 75 percent are more likely to take an action after seeing a location-specific message.

3.       Expansion to newer markets: As shoppers in mature markets continue to be hesitant buyers post-recession, they need to be lured with discount offers, coupons and ability to comparison shop both online and offline to help build the trust of this extremely value-driven market. Moving into emerging markets is an amazing growth opportunity, as such markets offer less competition along with customers who are curious and have a relatively high spending power. “Global expansion is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must’ to overcome slowing growth in core markets,” said Hana Ben-Shabat, a partner at A.T. Kearney, and co-leader of their study. All the infrastructure-building activity has played a role in helping to drive a growing middle-class economy. With more disposable income and a young population that is concentrated in urban areas, the conditions are ripe for retailers. Some of the most promising new markets for high growth include countries such as Botswana, Georgia, Oman, Mongolia and Azerbaijan.

4.       Increased video use: As Matt Lawrence, creative director of Studio at Huge says, “Companies need to realize that video has become the primary channel for consuming content online. Quality video content balances information and entertainment that viewers can relate to their daily lives, on a visceral level. The word of the year for 2013 is story.” Many of us are concerned about adding videos to our marketing because it slows down the customer experience. But this concern is slowly vanishing with internet connectivity becoming better and faster across the world. Retailers are much less restricted by broadband rates and have the freedom to use richer media content than ever before.

The biggest discussion that marketing teams across the globe are having is “how to make videos engaging”. A great example is the e-commerce video released by Barneys New York for their women’s and men’s spring 2012 collections. The twist in the video comes with models telling funny life stories, dancing and singing, all while wearing the latest looks. Interactive product thumbnails of the items being worn pop up throughout the video allowing shoppers to buy the clothes the models are wearing straight from the video. Video commerce solutions provider Liveclicker was used to create this interactive shopping experience.

5.     New Google algorithm: With updates in Google’s Panda and Penguin releases, websites with decent content, well-developed platforms and authentic social media engagement can now hold their own and don’t necessarily have to rely on the work of good link-builders. This makes the industry more of a level playing field. SEO doesn’t just map the website content but also takes into account social media activity, including actions of Facebook fans, level of engagement on blog posts and responses received on LinkedIn discussions. This is a major reason why having a balance between SEO and social is so important.

 6.     The rise of responsive design to target multiple device users: With research indicating that 58 percent of the UK’s population now own a smartphone and 19 percent own tablets; responsive design has become ever more essential when we’re building websites. Responsive web design is a methodology that takes advantage of a fluid grid to allow optimal viewing experiences, regardless of the device websites are viewed on. With the tablet market rapidly increasing, it really is imperative that websites are now built using responsive web design, so that the user experience is never compromised.

As the evolution of technology sparks seismic shifts in the retail industry, what other trends you think are shaping up the retail sector to make it more customer-friendly and interactive?

What You Need to Know About Facebook–This Week!

Facebook is overwhelmingly the most effective social media marketing channel for small businesses, with respondents saying it is better than Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and all other social networks, based on a Constant Contact Small Business Pulse Survey.

• 75% of SMBs said Facebook was the most effective social medium for their business
• 56% of users are more likely to recommend a business of which they are a Facebook fan
• 51% of Facebook users are more likely to buy after becoming a fan of a business

Despite the results, social media remains a challenge for small business owners, as 59% listed it as a marketing activity on which they need help.

With these points in mind, I wanted to share some of the latest tips, rules, news and features in recent days from the social superpower.

Facebook Wall Post Cheat Sheet for Marketers

What works and does not work when you post on Facebook? Edgerank is the algorithm that determines what appears in News Feeds. What it boils down to is that, the more people engage with your pages, the more they will appear on the site. And it follows that high engagement equals high sales.

The Facebook Wall Post Cheat Sheet created by Linchpin SEO has statistics that will help you post content that will engage your audience. Here are a few highlights.

• Photo posts receive interaction rates 39% higher than average.
• Posts that contain emoticons have 52% higher interaction rates and 57% higher Like rates, 33% higher comment rates and 33% higher share rates.
• Don’t bother with the 🙂 emoticon because it is so yesterday. However, 😀 has a +138% interaction rate!
• Posts with 80 characters or less get a 23% higher interaction rate but 75% of posts exceed this length.
• The most effective calls to action on Facebook include Like, caption this, share, yes or no and thumbs up. In contrast, take, click, submit, check and shop have much lower interaction rates.
• If you want someone to share your post, you just have to ask. When publishers do, the share rate is seven times higher.
• Along the same lines, if they are asked to comment, there is a 3.3 times higher comment rate and, if they are asked to like a post the rate is three times higher.
• “Winner”, “win” and “giveaway” are keywords that significantly increase interaction.
• You’ll get lower interaction rates with posts containing questions but will get a 92% higher comment rate.
• Be sure to put your questions at the end because these posts have two times higher interaction than those with questions in the middle.

Key Executives Mega Conference: Learn Important Trends and Gain Business Insights

The 2013 Key Executive Mega Conference conducted by Local Media Association, Inland Press Association and SNPA, brings together the best thought leaders covering the hottest trends in the industry today for increasing revenue, audience and engagement. As digital services grow in popularity among advertisers, publishers are exploring ways to diversify offerings and meet the demand for innovative solutions. Whether big or small, businesses are keen to increase visibility for their brands by tapping different platforms and ways of engaging potential and existing consumers. The conference gets publishers together to look at newer ways to help advertisers engage audience in two-way communications.

Here are some marketing trends that can help transform publishing models as we develop better ways to conduct business.

• Build competencies to attract the online shoppers: Industry data proves that advertisers are spending billions on digital services and products. Global business-to-consumer e-commerce sales will pass the 1 trillion euro mark (U.S. $1.25 trillion) by 2013 and the total number of Internet users will increase to approximately 3.5 billion from around 2.2 billion at the end of 2011, according to a new report by the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), a U.K. online retail trade organization. This growing trend focuses on the need to not just market products but also provide top-quality product experiences and transactions online. This means advertisers have to be present on all online platforms, sharing content that is meaningful and adding value through blogs and social media interaction. For publishers, meeting the needs of advertisers can be effective when proper training is provided to sales and support teams so they know and use the channels extremely well. As Adam Burnham, vice president of interactive sales for Affinity Express says, “Be overly-prepared to support the sales effort and partner with companies that are strong where you are weak.”

• Beef up mass marketing with targeted digital campaigns: Because targeted marketing talks to closed communities, addresses key concerns and brings in much higher returns per dollar spent, they are fast gaining popularity among all types of advertisers. Mass media is a good vehicle for building and sustaining brand awareness, but it cannot offer solutions to the problems of individual groups and communities—a critical need that is fulfilled by targeted digital vehicles. Therefore, local media companies are increasingly turning to SMB-oriented digital marketing and advertising services, a space where Hearst’s LocalEdge and The Dallas Morning News have been among those making increasingly aggressive moves.

• Don’t ignore mobile shoppers: According to Gartner, worldwide mobile advertising revenue will reach $11.4 billion in 2013, up from $9.6 billion last year and will hit $24.5 billion in 2016. These statistics show that smartphone users are edging close to critical mass of potential customers for all advertisers, a number that can not be ignored further. Local search has been a powerful driver in moving the mobile ad revenue needle. A very logical step for SMBs is to reach out to this audience by having a mobile-friendly website and a step ahead would be investing in mobile ads and applications that make the journey easy and interesting for someone seeking information. Location-based ads are the fastest growing segment of mobile advertising, according to BIA/Kelsey. As customers become the brand ambassadors for advertisers, their posts deliver advertisers’ messages through their text or images. That’s why advertisers and publishers have to start thinking differently to build these relationships by encouraging and rewarding such initiatives.

• Monetize your data to drive better marketing results: Publications use their data to promote reader engagement initiatives, launch campaigns for common-interest communities, encourage special deal purchases in exchange for site registration and more. Data is the foundation for these activities. Large companies use it to drive volume but SMBs can also use their data effectively because it represents a group of customers with special set of needs who respond to a brand message. Data collection is the easy part that happens at every contact point advertisers have from marketing to sales to support functions. But the new challenge will be connecting the dots between different types of data across multiple channels.

David Grant, Adam Burnham and Jason Luebke will represent Affinity Express at this year’s Key Executives Mega Conference. They would love to meet you and answer questions about using new media channels to strengthen and further enhance marketing strategies for your advertisers.

Multi-Channel Retailing Today and Tomorrow

When I attended the National Retail Federation conference a couple of weeks ago, there was a session on “Exhibitor Big Ideas”  dedicated to what global consumers say they really want in a multi-channel world, based on a 2012 study by NCR. The research was very enlightening about the current state of retail and the preferences of today’s consumers.

The study mapped what consumers look for and like with against retailers are actually offering and there is a lot of room for retailers to improve. In fact, retail will change more in the next five years than it has in the past 20 years.

1. Personalization and target marketing

When it comes to personalized coupon offers:

• 69% of consumers worldwide would welcome them.
• 73% of shoppers said the availability of electronic coupons is a must-have for them.
• 27% of grocery retail locations provide personalized offers.
• 46% of favorite grocery retailers offer electronic coupons (“favorites” were a specific sub-set of retailers cited by respondents)
• Overall, 35% of U.S. retailers offer them but 80% of American consumers want them.

2. Buy anywhere, get anywhere

Shoppers expect a connected or converged experience. They want to feel like they are dealing with the same business in-store, online, in mobile apps, etc. Brick and mortar stores must embrace that consumers are using technology. For many, the internet has become the shopping channel of choice. Retail has gone from a B2C to a C2B experience.

For each company, all of the pricing strategies, policies and procedures have to look and work the same. The best way to accomplish this is to put the right platforms in to manage the entire ecosystem versus managing all of them individually.

• 78% of shoppers in North America want to purchase anywhere and get merchandise shipped or picked up anywhere.
• 82% of favorite retailers in North America offer the option but 26% did not.

There are some interesting developments happening. Retailers are creating multiple channels for returns. It’s good they are doing this because expensive or lengthy return policies and procedures were reasons for not making purchases for 76% of consumers.

Retailers have to think about getting creative because there are many opportunities to think outside the box. For example, Sears had a drive-through window for returns after the holidays.

3. In-Store Self-Service

Most grocery stores have some self-service options but there is opportunity to incorporate this approach across all retail categories. Even in grocery, many retailers have self-service in the front lanes but not enough help around the store. Consumers want independence and control of their shopping experience.

• Nearly 20% of retailers provide in-store self-service
• However, 44% of North American consumers desired increased in-store self-service options.

Apple consumers can walk in, buy accessories and walk out without speaking or engaging with store associates.

4. Consumer Mobile

Retailers have to do mobile right and consumers love it when they do. The experience should be clean, fast and positive. Furthermore, it has to be timely. When it works, the adoption rate will be strong and fast. From mobile apps and offers to research and payment—there is no end to the trend.

Regarding  mobile scan and pay:

• 52% of consumers want mobile scan and pay
• Only 12% of their favorite grocery stores offer (because it is tough to implement and there are operational considerations).

Retailers who drive this feature early may actually get consumers to switch their loyalties. Even if retailers decide they want to hang back and join this trend late, they should start soon in the next one to three years because consumers will demand this feature.

Mobile can be a win-win.

• Consumers are using technology for faster checkout and personalized offers. They also use it to monitor spending.
• Retailers get valuable insight into purchasing behavior, store utilization/traffic patterns and can influence shoppers at the point of decisions with targeted offers. On top of that, scan and pay is a huge opportunity.

Stepping back to look at the big picture, time is the biggest problem retailers can solve for consumers. And they are getting more impatient. They digest technology really quickly. So if “Big Brother” is smart, he will be successful.

Ultimately, retailers have to remember that the consumer is in charge. Purchasing used to be a straight line of activity. Now there are lines all over the place in the C2B experience. The best advice for retailers is to think of all the points of contact, look at their technology architecture and centralize to deliver what consumers want, as well as how and where they want.

What makes certain retailers “favorites” for you and what multi-channel options do you value most?

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?

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.

Our Favorite Ads of 2012

The most effective advertising is written and designed to build an emotional connection with the target audience and then persuade people to want the product or service featured. Ads do this by combining strong visuals, powerful headlines, well-written copy and compelling calls to action. As 2012 rapidly comes to a close, we wanted to bring you some ads that stood out.

Here is a list of our favorite ads of 2012:

Print Ads

Print advertising is one of the toughest formats because it takes real talent to capture the hearts and the minds of consumers with just one image and a few words. The ads that get imprinted and are remembered for years are those that stretch our imagination.

Coffee Inn coffee houses: Sometimes extremely creative print ads make it difficult to tell what is being advertised, since they focus first on stopping the viewers by intriguing them. This technique pulls the audience in to read headlines and body copy so they understand the products. If you had to picture an image to convey black and white coffee, it’s unlikely you’d envision something like this but it works perfectly!

 

6 Tips to Nurture Leads

A very important and, for some companies, the only contribution that is required from marketing is lead generation. But at many small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), marketers struggle to establish databases and employ tactics that drive both new revenue and customer loyalty.

On top of that, it is a challenge to meet the needs of an audience which includes potential and existing customers, former customers who switched to other providers and even people who will never be customers but are part of the ecosystem and help spread the word about businesses.

Another consideration is that customers are inundated by marketing messages all day long and often shut out or ignore a majority of what comes at them.

So here are six tips to help you manage your database, support your audience and stand out among all the other online campaigns so your leads become happy customers.

1.       Record data in detail: Learn as much as you or your team members can about each contact and record the information in your client relationship management system, database, Excel spreadsheet or any other method you use.

Restaurant Website: How to Serve It Nice and Hot?

Despite the fact that 89% of US consumers research a restaurant online before dining there to check out menus and other information (AIS Media), I found some astonishing figures about restaurants:

• 95% of independent restaurants do not have a mobile website
• 40% do not have menus that can be read online
• 50% do not even have a standard website

(Research conducted by RIMS)

According to the National Restaurant Association, 50% of all full-service restaurants that have a web site use it primarily to offer consumers information about the restaurants and provide location details. This, I believe, is insufficient for customers who want to do everything online, from looking up restaurant locations on maps, checking out menus, reading customer reviews to booking tables online. With that in mind, here are some tips for restaurateurs planning to develop their websites to attract a lot more foodies online.

1. Make the website simple and logical

Keep the design simple, without any clutter. The information should be easily available to customers to help them make a quick decision.

8 Tips to Get Started on Email Marketing

There are many questions and concerns that SMB marketers face while planning their email marketing strategy. They range from choosing an email services provider, designing templates, writing interesting content, implementing analytics, tracking metrics, getting people to opt in, keeping track of new channels of communication like tablets, mobile phones and more. As a result, email marketing quickly turns from an interesting idea to a tricky and seemingly overwhelming project. How can you make sure that your email marketing produces results rather than wastes your time? Here are a few tips that have worked for me in executing e-marketing for Affinity Express.

1. Research best practices

Reading up on general metrics of email marketing such as average open and click-through rates will help you set targets for your campaigns. Insights from other marketers will save you time by helping you to avoid problems and employ tactics that work. For instance, 54% of people who unsubscribe from permission emails said the reason was that emails were coming too frequently. Furthermore, 77% of online consumers say they’ve become more cautious about giving companies their email addresses over the past year according to Subscribers, Fans and Followers research series by Exact Target.

The chart here shows reasons for unsubscribing from business mails as determined by Exact Target.

2.   Make subscribing easy

The most likely place to get someone to subscribe to your emails

5 Tips for Building Social Media Calendars

Social media offers a myriad of choices to small to medium-sized business owners. However, “One effect, paradoxically, is that it produces paralysis rather than liberation . . . and even if we manage to overcome paralysis and make a choice, we are less satisfied than we would have been if we had fewer options.” according to the psychologist Barry Schwartz. The way to overcome the paralysis is to have a structure. I’m not talking about spending all your time planning so you have no time left for doing. Rather, I’m suggesting you commit to a schedule for social media marketing.

Social Media Calendar

Initially, it seemed like a time-consuming task to me, but I quickly realized how comfortable it makes my life. We are lost without our Google calendars every day. The same logic applies when it comes to planning social media marketing. With so many tools available for creating a calendar, planning social media for an SMB entrepreneur or marketer has become much easier. Tools like timeline calendar helps in planning Facebook postings, tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck and SocialOomph come with many auto alerts. They help to pre-program your social media activities and also post on your behalf on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social sites. This feature makes it very convenient for weekends or other times when you are away from work. Social media can also be planned using a simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and shared on Google Docs, where all team members can see it and make suggestions.

Here are some tips for making your social media calendar:

1.        Focus on small periods of time initially

Do not attempt to create a whole year’s calendar for two reasons: first, it is going to be such a huge task that it might put you off, and second, we are dealing with media in real-time here. The stories, discussions and trends change every day and we need to respond. That’s why planning for a week or two to start allows you to be ahead of things while also having enough time to plan for new developments.

Tips for Shooting Videos with Business People

Shooting a video might be easy for the Hollywood showbiz types. It might be a breeze for models in commercials that make products look so intriguing we have to buy them. It also might be a cake walk for actors, singers and dancers who seem to live their lives on camera. But for most of us in the business community, shooting a video is a daunting task. There are professionals who direct huge teams and don’t give a second thought about going before a large gathering to discuss that quarter’s sales figures, deliver a motivational talk or gear up their teams for a tough challenge. But when these same people face a video camera, they stutter, their palms become sweaty and they look for excuses to duck out of the ordeal!

I faced this situation recently when we had to shoot some videos of Affinity Express team members that will be featured on our new website. It put a lot of stress on all of us—the actors as well as planners behind the scene. But it also gave us an experience to remember. The proud smiles on participants’ faces when they watched their final videos made all of the challenges worth facing. That’s why I thought about writing the key things to keep in mind while shooting a business video.

Tell a story

A good video is a journey that starts with an introduction, moves ahead to share an experience and ends with a message or final thought. Leaving out any of the three parts will disappoint the audience. The story could be told through words such as customer testimonials, by showing a process as in the making or use of a product or with the coverage of a business event.