Internet Marketing

Increasing Brand Awareness with Word of Mouth Marketing

by Melvin · Mar 9, 2013

This is a guest post by Amanda Revie

“If you like it, tell your friends” translates into “If you like it, tweet about it” in the age of social media. Word of mouth marketing for brand awareness is all about creating compelling and engaging content that people will want to share with others. A successful strategy for increasing brand awareness often combines different platforms on which to share your content and release it into the world. It is easy, relatively cost free to market your brand through different platforms, but done in the wrong way and it will never work. Planning and strategy are the keys to raising brand awareness.

Constant Updates Don’t Raise Awareness

Spamming is the absolute worst thing you can do. It is easy to think that the more content you post the more likely you will interest someone, but in fact constantly updating is a big turn off for users. It is therefore a huge waste of your time to be on social media and actually driving interest away.

Think quality, not quantity and you will begin to build awareness around a brand that people will want to engage with on social media platforms and share your content with your friends.

However, don’t make the mistake of posting too little. People enjoy fresh content, even if it’s something small. If you don’t update regularly then people will stop checking your site. This is why a content strategy is important, so you know what to post and when. This also means you can do it beforehand and have it automatically post for you if you’re away.

Striking a balance is of the utmost importance.

Variety is the Spice of Life

If all your updates are promoting you, your products, events or services then the people who receive your updates will become bored and go elsewhere. Raising brand awareness is doing just that- raising awareness of your brand and not necessarily what your brand sells. Let your reputation and your brand identity sell your products. Take Innocent Drinks on Facebook as an example. Most of their posts are in line with their overall personality as a business. They use casual humor about nature, animals, fruit and veg, and bad jokes that they find amusing as posts for their Facebook page. They do occasionally post about their products, but it by no means dominates their page.

Even content that seems completely irrelevant can have a positive effect on your brand awareness. Social media and content marketing company Red Rocket Media, for instance, promoted their ‘best office dog’ competition through their Facebook and Twitter pages. Over the two months of the competition, the reach of their Facebook increased by 4,495 per cent. This demonstrates how even seemingly irrelevant, but engaging and compelling content can increase awareness of the brand behind it.

Going Viral

A viral marketing plan takes a lot of planning and an inspired idea. A video is the type of content most likely to go viral, as it is eye-catching and easy to engage with. If we think that the video is funny, fascinating, or weird then we are more likely to share it instantly with our friends on social media platforms. A viral video is the ultimate in word of mouth marketing.

A video that has gone viral is often short, simple and entertaining. If it’s for a brand or a business, it’s never obvious or advertorial.

Google considers video to be more engaging and ranks it higher than blogs or articles so it will gain more exposure. However, you can’t rely on Google to do the work for you. If you want to make the video go viral, then there are a few things that you can do to help it along. Make sure that the thumbnail image is intriguing and your title will spark interest. You should share your video with your network on all your social media platforms, and ask them to share it. Make sure you share it with the right people too, such as bloggers, writers and sites with millions of visitors. If it’s successful, then people will share it without any obligation to you, thus promoting your business by pure and simple word of mouth.

Content is King

Word of mouth marketing starts with social media and if you do it right it will expand and expand. The things that you post need to be consistent with your brand’s identity but varied enough to retain interest. You also need to make sure that you strike a balance between posting too much and not enough. Above all, the content needs to be engaging. As the saying goes, content is king.

Author Bio:

Amanda Revie is an online social media marketer and SEO expert at the WebMarketing Group. You can follow them @webmktinggroup on Twitter

Cost-Effective Ways to Market Your Online Business Offline

by Melvin · Feb 27, 2013

A lot of people these days are so focused on marketing their businesses online that they tend to neglect the offline part. Sure, promoting online is much easier, gives us wider reach and most of the time, is cheaper as well. However, this doesn’t mean doing offline promotions is not worth it.

In this blog post, I will list down some cost effective ways to market your online business offline. These offline marketing techniques should just complement your current online strategies and should still allow you to reach more people without spending too much money.

1. Giveaway items

There’s already plenty to choose from here however you don’t really need to spend too much. A simple BIC stic pen with your web address in it can easily promote your website. And these pens don’t cost too much at all so you are literally getting more bang for your buck already.

You can also give away more expensive items like T-Shirts, mugs, mouse pads, even a discount coupon for what your business is offering. The key here is to gauge people’s interest and make them curious enough about your business that they would check out your website no matter what.

2.Flyers and brochures

There’s a reason why so many businesses are still doing this and its due to it being still effective. Here you just need to have flyers and brochures made and those simply need to have information about your business what it is all about. You can even go into as specific as listing down the different products or services that you’re selling and the corresponding prices for each of them. You can also combine this with the first method which should entice people more since you’re giving away something.

The key here is targeting the location carefully. If your business provides services that are related to university students, then it totally makes sense to give flyers near the universities. Or if you’re someone who’s providing freelance services, then go to places where small business are located. Overall, you want to target as many qualified prospects as possible so it’s not entirely about the quantity.

3. Yourself and your resources as a marketing vehicle.

Are you traveling daily to places that are crowded? Or do you drive for more than an hour a day? If yes, then you can make use of yourself in promoting your business.

For example, if you’re commuting and riding trains, you can wear a shirt or anything that mentions your business. That can easily be seen by hundreds, if not thousands of people per day. If you have a car on the other hand, you can put out signs or even have decals on it and make it look like as if it’s a moving billboard. This will reach a lot of people especially during rush hours.

Those are just two examples and as I said, the sky is the limit here. Why not take a look of what you have and start from there?

4. Sponsor events and competitions

If you want to take your offline marketing efforts to the next level, then you must consider taking part into events and competitions as a sponsor. With events, you can easily make use of all the three things that I just discussed. The good thing with sponsoring events is that you are given some good exposure as well since the MC’s mention the sponsors frequently throughout the event. A lot of times (and depending on the sponsorship package that you would avail) they also give you time to talk and promote your business. And this is best time to not just tell participants about your business, but also give good valuable information that would make them interested enough to learn more about you.

Sponsoring events is the most expensive among all however if done right, it can easily yield better and quicker results. Just make sure to plan carefully here as the risk is definitely much higher. Don’t forget to consider the audience of the event too. If the target age of your business is 40 years old and above, then it might not be wise for you to sponsor a university event.

Offline marketing can be as powerful and cost-effective as online marketing if done correctly. Its important here to do your homework first, plan things carefully and then execute that plan to perfection. Then simply just rinse and repeat.

Do you have any other cost-effective offline marketing techniques that you want to share? Feel free to let me know through the comment form.

Foretelling the Future? You Don’t Need ESP

by Melvin · Feb 1, 2013

This is a guest post by Amanda Green.

On the surface, it seems like product launches consist of three steps: think up the product, make the product, and launch it to the public. The truth is that there is a lot more work that goes into it than that, which involves anticipating the future, foretelling how a product will be received on the market. It’s not so mystical as say hiring a psychic to predict market fluctuations, although there are companies that actually do this. Realistic foretelling of the future involves thinking and acting precisely. Here are some of the things that you need to do if you want to set your product up to succeed.

Product Research

Here is the sad truth: chances are high that someone has had the same idea you’ve had before. This is why, as soon as you start to take your idea seriously, you need to go into research mode. You don’t just need to find out whether the product already exists. You need to look up patents, trademarks, copyrights, etc. It’s important to do this for every product that even remotely resembles yours. This isn’t just for your protection. It’s to help you figure out how to make your product the absolute best product on the market.

Product Testing

You need to test your product before you start marketing it to the public or attempting to launch it for sales revenue. There are a few phases to this.

1. Prototype testing

Make several different models of the product you want to launch. These are called prototypes. Bring people to, for lack of better word, play with your prototypes and then ask them what they think. Track their responses to each prototype, positive and negative. Use their feedback to inform the next round of product prototypes. Repeat this cycle until you’ve got a single product that is free of bugs, glitches or problems.

2. Product Honing

Once you’ve got a prototype that is functional and without major bugs, create a few variations of this finalized prototype and run through the testing process again. You can help yourself with this process if you bring in groups both from your original prototype testing sessions and brand new eyes.

3. Run the Numbers

Trying to pick a price point can be difficult, particularly with markets being as volatile as they are. You need to do more than just a simple Excel sheet projection to figure out how your product is likely to sell given what you know about your market, the current economy, etc. Profit Stars asset liability management team recommends running a variety of different scenarios to help you get the fullest picture of your product’s projected success…which, unless you’re a mathematician is probably something you’ll want to hire a professional to help you do.

Get It Out There

It’s okay to do a soft launch of a product to get an idea of how it will perform within the real world. Soft launches are a great way to get independent feedback and to test market response. You can also use this time to properly market the product for a “real” and “hard” launch on a future date. This is another area where it is helpful to hire professionals. A marketing firm can help you pick a date and make sure that a good amount of buzz and anticipation is built up for your product so that, when it hard launches, it will bring in a large sum of money. Even better, professional marketers will know how to help you sustain the buzz surrounding your product launch long after the launch has actually taken place.

Unfortunately, as far as we know, nobody is able to accurately predict the future, though as stated before, some companies do test the waters with psychics. The real way to foretell the future is to do your research and testing correctly. If you do, there’s no reason to believe that the product you dream up can’t be launched successfully and profitably.

Making the Most Out of Google+ Business Page

by Melvin · Dec 30, 2012

This is a guest post by Amanda Green.

It’s a fact that Google+ is evolving with time and is slowly becoming an integral part of any business’s online reputation and subsequent sales. It makes your Google+ business page really important, since it reflects the online reputation of your brand.

If you’re not making the most out of your Google+ page, then you’re definitely leaving money on the table – money that you could put in the highest interest rate savings account and increase your overall earnings.

Advantages of a Google+ Business Page

Your Customers Are On It: Whether you believe it or not, your target customers are already on Google+ socializing and consuming information. So instead of interrupting them with your advertising, you can use Google+ to connect to them and engage with them.
Create More Direct Relationships: One of the plus points of using Google+ is that the social network gives utmost value to quality content. Content that you can create to establish more direct, personal relationships with your target audience.
Use Video Chat: Google+ Hangouts, the video chat feature is great to hold video talk sessions with your prospects/customers. Getting them involved will help you generate more feedback.

How to Market Your Business with Google+

Creating a Google+ business page is one thing, but marketing your business effectively using it is something else. Unless and until you’re doing your best to market it well, you won’t see results. Here are some ideas to go with:

Create a “Suggested Circles” List: One of the easiest ways to market with Google+ is to create a list of suggested circles, sorted out by priority, which is placed on the top of your profile page’s About tab.
Leverage Google+ Search: When you’re there on Google+, then make some noise. Show the world that you’re there by searching Google+ search for industry keywords, and mentions of your brands. Save these searches and monitor them daily to respond to mentions, reply to comments, etc.
Join Others’ Hangouts: While it’s totally up to you if you want to start your own Google+ hangout, you should definitely participate in others’ to understand how to effectively use it. This helps you make your own hangouts much more successful when you hold them.

Promoting Your Google+ Page

Focus on getting more followers
Make use of Google+ badges
Add your page to your sitelinks
Share really valuable information
Use Ripples to connect to Influencers
Host hangouts for customers
Promote on other social media platforms
Enable social extensions in Adwords

Remember, Google+ is not just another social network. It’s a revolution in itself, which is lead by search engine giant. So if you want your business to grow online, then see to it that you’re taking full advantage of Google Plus.

A New Challenge – Effectively Marketing a Local Website

by Melvin · Aug 20, 2012

Despite of me being totally busy with work and other stuff, I decided to launch a new website purely based on it being a hobby (or maybe not even really). ‘Passion projects’ aren’t really the best thing in life because aside from the fact that it doesn’t give you assurance of making money, its also a time sink and something that could hinder you from doing other things that are more “worth it” financially speaking. But life is all about being happy eh? 😛

You Still Trying to Make Money Blogging? That’s Old School!

by Melvin · May 19, 2012

Well, its really not! 🙂 But blogging has changed a lot over the past 10 years that a lot of bloggers were left (in the dust) because they’re still doing blogging the same way they’re doing it 5-10 years ago. I gotta admit that I sort of consider myself one of those who have not been doing what I’m supposed to be doing different than what I was doing before.

A couple of days ago, I read a post from one of my favorite blogs entitled ‘The Future of Blogging‘. Now I know you’re probably thinking that this is one of those cheesy posts where the author just puts something together about how blogging will still change the world, whatever, but trust me its not. The post is the longest post I’ve read in a while, and more importantly it tackles the reality of blogging and where its really heading in the future. Here’s a pretty long excerpt:

This is an important blog post, because it makes a prediction. A prediction about the future of blogging; a platform actively used by over 181 million people (Nielsen data for October 2011). Not only will you learn why I think most blogging advice is dated and ineffective, but I’ll also reveal where I believe this entire industry is heading, so you can stay ahead of the competition.

This is not only an important post, but also the longest I have ever written. It’s more like a mini-eBook, without the price tag. Don’t let its lack of cost make you doubt the value here though. I will at least sell you on what you’re about to learn:

A weird tip I personally received from Google’s Matt Cutts which increased my ViperChill search rankings

What Gawker does once per week to double their traffic figures. That’s going from two million to four million uniques per day

Why the Daily Mail recently surpassed the New York Times as the number #1 newspaper website in the world

How Mashable crushed TechCrunch on traffic numbers (even though they used to be the underdog)

Why the successful ‘make money online’ blogs of the past have now faded into obscurity

The number one reason Leo Babauta dominated the personal development industry in two months

What Steve Kamb did to build a six-figure blog in the overly saturated health niche

Why feed counts mean absolutely nothing (and never really have)

Which Huffington Post articles attract 3X more clicks than any other

Why the Verge was one of the fastest growing blog launches in history

…and most importantly, how this all helps me to make a prediction about what it now takes to build highly profitable blogs.

What I love about the post aside from that it covers a lot of different interesting subtopics is the fact that Glen backed up everything with numbers and proofs. I know research is overrated but the amount of effort that was done here is just phenomenal. I rarely print blog posts (not sure I ever did before) but when I read the first 60% of it, I was convinced that I should.

Again, give it a real read and I can guarantee that this post will benefit you.

Immense Growth of Internet Marketing Companies

by countolaf · May 15, 2012

Do you ever wonder why you’re getting emails literally almost every day from companies offering internet marketing services in general? Whether it be article writing services, search engine marketing or even a simple website optimization service that includes web design and such, it’s just clear that these internet marketing companies are sprouting and growing faster than ever.

There’s a good reason for their growth and this is due to demand.

Demand for Internet Marketing Services

The growth of internet marketing companies has actually started a long time ago. Ever since late 2005, there are already companies that offer marketing services to other businesses. The only thing different these days is that it seems these internet marketing companies are sprouting faster than ever. Every person who knows a thing or two about blogging or SEO seems to be convinced that he’s qualified to do the business.

To be fair with these companies, the reason why a lot of people are enamored to do this is because there is a huge demand. The entire internet marketing hype has reached its peak and that has convinced a lot of offline business owners to incorporate online marketing to their business. Hence, the plethora of internet marketing consulting firms has started sprouting.

Regardless of how they’re charging their clients, they seem to be offering pretty much the same things. The only thing that’s slightly different is positioning. Perhaps the way they ‘position’ their offer is different but the basic concept is the same.

Positioning pitches or offers is something that companies use to their advantage. For instance, if I offer marketing services myself and just offer it as a general internet marketing service to my clients, it would be harder for me to sell it as oppose to someone offering something specific like a Pay-per click management service, who can later on build more and upsell other services to his clients.

A lot of people are even primarily offering social media consulting but it’s not hard to see that it’s the same internet marketing service that others are promoting. And as I mentioned above, you have those other companies that ‘front’ even smaller services like article writing/guest posting and webpage optimization packages.

To simply put it, companies offer a specific service in hopes that the client will be satisfied and thus avail more of their services.

Who’s really your client

The main reason why internet marketing companies position their offer differently is that it depends to their potential clients or the market/niche that they are offering this to.

It’s easier to sell an SEO service to a local business that’s starting to get established online than an online business that already has some knowledge perhaps on how the internet works. I’m not saying that its easier because you’re selling something to a “fool” but rather it’s just how business works.

Flower shop owners in Chicago hire companies who provide internet marketing in Chicago to do campaigns for them not only because they’re not knowledgeable on that part but also because they don’t want to be knowledgeable and thus involved on doing those things. The same with dentists near your location, veterinarians in Alabama, or even real estate business owners in Dallas. If I’m good with taking care of cats, then how would you expect me to be good with PPC or even be interested with it?

Another good example is traditional & old online businesses. People offer the social media/web 2.0 services because they know that that these businesses might not have been involved deeply yet with social media and some of the “newer” stuff. Here you cannot offer content-writing services or copywriting because they already have people that are doing this for them for a long time.

All in all, it’s about who you are targeting to. Most companies make this mistake of just ‘shot-gunning’ everyone with their ‘general’ offers not knowing that the people they’re pitching to might even be better than them at what they do. Like how I receive emails daily from people offering me their search engine optimization services as if I don’t know SEO myself (but I’m not an expert obviously).

There’s no doubt it’s good to get as many potential clients as you can to send your services to but whether they’re really a ‘potential’ client or not is another thing. This is where most marketing companies fail. And unfortunately, this is the trend that new internet marketing companies get themselves to do as well. They just follow the herd and don’t do it the proper way.

To be fair with these companies, the reason why a lot of people are enamoured to do this is because there is a huge demand. The entire internet marketing hype has reached its peak and that has convinced a lot of offline business owners to incorporate online marketing to their business. Hence, the plethora of internet marketing consulting firms has started sprouting.

To simply put it, companies offer a specific service in hopes that the client will be satisfied and thus avail more of their services.