A lucid account...
30 ways to 'do' marketing without social media!
You'd be forgiven for thinking there's no other way to market your products except via social media these days. But there are a host of ways to promote your business, make direct sales and raise awareness, both online and offline. And as with so much in life, putting your eggs in one basket isn't always the wisest move.
Here's a list of places and ways to market your business without resorting to social media. Which ones you use depends on where your target market hangs out. If, for example, you sell widgets for washing machines, it's highly unlikely you'll be able to kick off a vibrant conversation about them on Twitter... so choose your weapons with marketing common sense in mind!
- online articles submitted to article distribution services
- articles, opinion pieces and editorial for printed trade press
- letters to trade and consumer magazines, online and in print
- newspaper articles and editorial
- direct response advertising
- direct mail
- email marketing
- blogging
- press releases
- printed leaflets and fliers
- corporate brochures
- special customer offers
- special offers for new prospects
- up-selling more expensive stuff to buyers
- cross-selling extra or related stuff to buyers
- offering white papers for free download
- offering free ebooks for download
- database marketing, using customer data to drive more sales over time
- via customer feedback and other interactions
- local radio and TV appearances, generated by submitting press releases and stories
- local radio campaigns, which are surprisingly cheap
- via video on your website
- reviewing your own and competitors' products
- natural search engine optimisation
- paid search, ie. Pay Per Click / AdWords
- Google Shopping, where the best prices are given priority
- postcards, left in suitable places or used for direct marketing campaigns
- telemarketing
- loyalty marketing initiatives
- via online forums
Going online for the first time and entering a mature ecommerce market
There are still plenty of small businesses out there who haven't yet ventured online. And who can blame them?
It's been a hair raising ride so far and the ecommerce market is only just maturing. The minute you get a grip on things they change. New media enter the marketplace and fizzle out just as fast. Then there's SEO and SMM and SEM. New tools and payment methods, content management systems and coding requirements.
But despite everything, there's nothing wrong with entering a mature market. It just means the early adopters have done most of the hard experimental work for you, forging ahead and weathering the winds of change... or not! You'll be building your business based on what they've learned.
These days setting up a website is easier than ever, faster than ever and costs less than ever. Remember the bad old days fifteen years ago when a simple brochure site build could easily cost £25k and building your own, unless you were a true geek, was a horrible coding hell?
If you're sitting on the ecommerce fence, about to jump off into online business, take heart. The internet might be growing exponentially but there's still room for new players. An online business works in much the same way as an offline business in terms of things like good customer service, a pleasant shopping environment, an enjoyable experience, efficiency, responsiveness and so on. You're on relatively familiar ground, just swimming in a different medium. If you run a tight, successful offline business, you should be able to run a tight, successful online business... with the right kind of website and judicious use of specialist support.
The most important thing of all is to find a web designer and builder you can trust. It's best to follow word of mouth recommendations if you're looking for someone reliable and appropriately creative, business savvy and able to speak plain English. Whatever you do, don't take the amateur route and get your cousin's nephew's best mate on the job because he's done a bit of web design at sixth form. When you mean business, you need to be businesslike!
If you fancy a no-obligation chat about getting your small business online for the first time - or making a better job of your existing site - why not contact Chris? He'll talk you through the process, no strings attached, and ultimately make sure your ecommerce site ticks all the right boxes. You never know, 2012 might be your big year!
Useful marketing-led stuff to do over Christmas
Unless you're selling Christmas-related stuff, you might find business soon starts slowing down for the festive season. It's a classic time for marketers to hang up their hats for a couple of weeks and get organised for the new year. Here's a list of things to do while you twiddle your thumbs and wait for sanity to return!
- don't stop doing SEO. Search engines don't know it's Christmas
- stop your non-SEO marketing campaigns or at least slow down 'til the first clear business week in January. If you keep going you'll only get lost in all the Xmas media noise - you might as well save your money
- clean your customer and prospect databases so they're up to date ready for email marketing, direct mail or whatever in 2012
- sort out your invoices and payments so you know who to remind in the new year, in preparation for the end of the tax year in March
- take a long, hard look at your website and get it in the best possible shape for 2012: take down old stuff, out of date offers, dead stock and so on. And check your content sounds / looks its best.
- if you don't have a business blog yet, award your business a blog for Christmas. It'll benefit your bottom line in all sorts of ways, as we've already mentioned in earlier posts
- do some planning. If you've been marketing on an ad hoc basis all year, do your sums and find out which of your efforts bore the most fruit. Plan to do more of the best performing stuff. Drop the rest for the time being and make a note to re-test them again later in 2012 just in case things have changed
- research your market and competitors to check you're on the right track
Ogilvy's head honcho distils best marketing practice
Rory Sutherland is Executive Creative Director and Vice Chairman at Ogilvy One London and VC of the Ogilvy Group, one of the ad agencies whose 1950s antics inspired the TV series 'Mad Men'. A maverick marketer, Sutherland is known and loved for cutting through the BS, delivering incisive and often hilarious marketing industry wisdom and commentary.
Starting life as a direct mail copywriter, he knows his direct response stuff. And he knows exactly what makes a great piece of marketing - which could be anything from an ecommerce website to a direct marketing mail pack - tick.
I particularly appreciated his Twitter diatribe on Radio Four's comedy programme 'Museum of Curiosity' this week. It included one of those gems of a comment that that sounds like a throw-away line 'til it sinks in. Then it reveals itself as key to doing the best marketing job you possibly can.
In the eyes of one of the best respected and successful marketers in Britain, you need to make your stuff 'useful and interesting'.
What does that mean in a marketing context? Here's a few clues.
- useful: include all the information people need to make a buying decision or otherwise respond... but no more. Resist the impulse to fill your website or email message or direct mail piece with extra fluff like qualifiers and caveats, fine details, legal stuff... if something doesn't add to your core sales message, ditch it
- interesting: express yourself in a way that attracts attention and holds it. Lose the corporate speak and inject some personality into your communications
- useful: target your marketing at the people who want to receive it rather than blatting zillions of un-targeted messages to people who quite honestly couldn't give a stuff about your products and services
- interesting: create a sales message that'll hit hard and entertain people
- useful: tell the truth and nothing but the truth, bringing Likeonomics into play
Top marketing news for ecommerce businesses
Once upon a time marketing stood still. You had a handful of key media to play with; telly, radio, newspapers and mags, direct mail and PR. Marketers could happily predict response rates for mainstream media with pleasing accuracy and you always knew roughly what ROI to expect from a campaign.
Then came the internet.
Today's marketing and SEO experts work in a completely different landscape where response rates are all over the place. New media keep popping up, unpredictable and fast-changing, overtaking the old stuff and muddying the marketing waters. Most people doing social media marketing on Twitter have no idea whether or not it's profitable. And there's a new 'next big thing' every five minutes.
Phew. Luckily some trends are clear. Here's a bunch of ecommerce-related news and stats, gleaned from t'internet to keep you up to date with the latest developments.
- Google says 20% of search queries are coming from mobile devices. It's time to get your mobile web presence in order if you haven't already. We've written about it before so click back for common sense information about mobile websites
- 60% of businesses in a recent survey said blogging attracts more new business than any other online medium. If you're neglecting your blog, get on the case. If you don't have one yet, bolt a blog onto your existing site or use the opportunity to get Chris on the case, designing you a fab new online presence
- Fresh Egg, the well known SEO agency, says there's no such thing as a social media marketing expert because the medium is far too new for anyone to have clocked up a creditable level of expertise. If you fancy giving it a go, DIY is as good as anything - there's plenty of good advice online so suck it and see!
- Google + is well and truly launched, yet another social network platform to get to grips with, update and keep abreast of. Watch out for news about social media fatigue as small business owners attempt to grapple with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus without having nervous breakdowns. The answer? Pick the social media weapons of your choice, test them long term to see if they generate hard cash for your business and leave the rest. Otherwise you'll go mental trying to keep up
- direct marketing is coming to the fore at long last, as online marketers mature and begin to discover the age-old marketing principles and practices that drive response and conversion... whatever the medium. If you're looking for online marketing support make sure the people you choose have a solid grounding in direct marketing as well as a keen eye for SEO
'Likeonomics' hits the marketing industry
Rohit Bhargarva says "We all want to do business with people we like and choose products we have a personal affinity with". His theory, Likeonomics, is taking the marketing world by storm. And it's about time too.
What's it all about? Likeonomics involves making your products, services and brand likeable.
What is likeable in a business context? Trustworthy, honest, transparent, truthful and human.
Why's it proving such a big hit? It's the Zeitgeist again. We live in interesting times... in the Chinese sense. It's as scary as a scary thing out there. Adrift on a stormy sea of economic uncertainty, rising prices, redundancies, flatlining property prices and looming climate chaos, we're scared *hitless.
The last thing we need is smarmy, shiny snake oil salesmen lying, exaggerating and misleading us. In times like these, according to Rohit's research, we want to give our hard-earned money to people we like and trust.
Take Innocent and Virgin, both early adopters of the Likeability principle years before the phrase was coined or the theory put forward.
Over the decades Richard Branson's reassuring woolly jumpers and sincere consumer advocacy have bred a brand close to our hearts. We like Virgin. And Innocent does exactly what it says on the tin (there's another one!). Their products are pure, clean and honest. Their packaging and tone of voice are endearing. We genuinely like Innocent and millions of us respond by happily shelling out cash for their stuff.
Importantly, neither of them are pretending. Their marketing reflects what they're actually like. It's no good being a marketing wolf in sheep's clothing. Consumers are far to savvy to swallow fibs and they see right through smokescreens. You need to live the life and reflect your niceness and good intentions in your marketing to attract new custom. And to save the world as we know it, for that matter.
Here's what you need to apply to your marketing for likeability:
- honesty
- simplicity
- being human
Chris is really nice. You can trust him to do what it says on the tin too. Give him a call to chat about your new website or redesign and you'll be in safe hands.
How to get your ebusiness on page 1 of Google in hours
When you open up a high street shop potential customers can see you straight away. But when you first set up an ecommerce business you're practically invisible to new prospects until you've done a great deal of hard search engine optimisation graft. That's no good if you want to start selling online from day one. So what's the solution?
Unless you're in an extremely competitive sector, Google AdWords is a really good way to shoot your site onto the first page of Google for your key terms. It's practically instant. And it's usually very good value - you only pay when someone clicks through from your ad and it's often only a few pennies per click. It depends on your key terms.
When you're on P1 of Google for your key phrases you can work in the background to improve your 'natural' search engine results profile by adding to your site, building inbound links and attracting positive attention because the whole thing is so fantastic. In other words, natural SEO. Once you've reached the position you want in the search results you can switch off your AdWords account. And switch it back on if you ever run out of natural SEO steam and need a break to get your site back up there.
Alternatively you can sit back, relax and let AdWords do all the hard work for you for the duration. It's likely to cost you less than taking on an SEO agency or doing natural SEO yourself. Do the sums and see.
If you decide to stick with AdWords in the long term, take care to re-research your key phrases regularly to make sure they're still the best performers. You'd be surprised how things can change. If you haven't got one already, set up a Google account and use their free keyword research tool.
AdWords is easy enough to set up, learn and maintain yourself as long as you can spare the time. It's an excellent way to stay familiar with the way your site is perceived out there in the wilds of t'internet. You can also take on a specialist to do it for you. It's probably best to check it out yourself first. If you can handle it and you have the time, it's cheaper to DIY.
Time for a website redesign? Go the whole hog!
How old is your website? Ecommerce is maturing and some sites are more than ten years old. So what? So technologies change, search engine algorithms evolve, tastes and design fashions change and it's vital to keep your online presence up to date.
Do you remember the bad old days where plain text websites with black, blue and red text and no images freely roamed the internet's wild west? It feels weird when you come across one these days, they look so old fashioned.
Once upon a time putting a curved bevel on a box was a considerable coding challenge. But lovely, swirly curves and organic forms have hit the big time over the past two years as electronic paintbrushes hit the mainstream and code becomes more sophisticated. Times change and design mores keep pace - the slow but steady 'greening' of our culture is also having an effect on website imagery and style.
Apart from bringing the look and feel of your business bang up to date, a site redesign is also an excellent opportunity to make a run for it and take advantage of a content management platform that does it justice.
In short, if a site redesign's on the cards you may as well go the whole hog. Here's a short list of the advantages of redesigning your ecommerce site completely so it does the best possible job of making money for your business.
- it's probably easier, faster and cheaper to start from scratch than fight with tired old code in an attempt to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
- because a brand new site, on a good platform, is easier to maintain and keep up to date you can spend more time growing your business instead of faffing around with an ancient, cranky CMS
- because a new site is easier for visitors and customers to use, bringing the latest knowledge and wisdom about how to make ecommerce work its hardest into play, it'll work better ie. convert more visitors to customers
- it'll be more secure, built with up to date online security in mind
- it'll be more SEO-friendly because today's designers are much more au fait with the ins and outs of sensible on-site SEO
- it'll be easier to add new functionality without getting into a horrible coding pickle
- when your designer uses a flexible platform like Adobe Business Catalyst for your new site, you get zillions of exciting and useful options and extras that you can turn on and off with a click of your mouse
- you're at a competitive advantage when your site looks and feels fresh, modern and 'together' rather than old, tatty and a bit frilly at the edges
Knowledge is power - make friends with marketing stats!
Do you run a small to medium sized business? If so, are you au fait with your website stats? Or do you tend to ignore them because they're too much like hard work / incomprehensible / dull / scary? If you're the latter it's time to gird up your small business loins and get busy with the numbers.
Why? Mobile web is heating up by the second. Social media marketing is maturing enough to deliver a reasonable return on investment for some players. If you're marketing your business in any way, shape or form, from natural search engine optimisation to Pay Per Click, email campaigns to direct mail, advertising to press releases, you need to know what works best. So you can plan properly and get the biggest bang for your marketing buck.
It's dangerous having no idea where your enquiries and sales are coming from, whether it's online or offline. You can end up investing in marketing and media that don't perform as well as they might, re-using poorly performing media, wasting money on expensive print when it isn't having a financial impact, spending days Tweeting for no financial return... funnelling cash into a non-responsive black hole. Worse still, if you don't keep your eye on your marketing you could easily miss out on valuable trends.
Here's some tips:
- As far as online enquiries are concerned, make sure your website's CMS includes a top flight stats package. The one Chris uses has a beauty, fully integrated into the Adobe Business Catalyst platform
- Make sure your email marketing package collects detailed response stats for you
- What about telephone enquiries? Get in the habit of asking callers where they heard of you so you can attribute responses to the right campaign. You need to know if they've found you on Google, followed a link in an online ad, read a press release in their local paper, followed you on Twitter or whatever
- If you do direct mail, ensure your physical response mechanism includes a code so you can track back who responded to what
- It's your job to keep a tab on what you've spent per campaign too. You can't make a judgement about ROI unless you know exactly how much you've spent in the first place. Count your time as well as the cash you've parted with
Teens move first... but the rest of us soon follow!
We're stuck in the middle of a massive demographic time bomb right now. The British population is ageing fast and there will soon be more older people than young 'uns. But the youth market is still seen as the primary place to be. And a surprisingly large number of big brands are still chasing it, the idea being if you catch 'em young they'll stick with your brand for life.
What do future demographics mean for ecommerce? Unless your products and services are age specific, for instance zit cream or trainers the size of speedboats, it's probably best to try and appeal to a wider age range. If you position your business so it only appeals to the youth market you face a shrinking pot of consumers as the population ages. If you're into empire building, focusing exclusively on the young won't bode well for your business's future!
When you take youth-specific goods and services out of the equation, it's probably wiser to treat the youth market as an indicator of the things most of us will probably be using and doing before long. Not as your sole target market. Which means your online presence should appeal to everyone and his dog, not just the young and vibrant amongst us.
Yes, specific products appeal to specific ages. But if you want to appeal to everyone in your potential market, not just a chosen few, there's a lot you can do to make it so. And it isn't rocket science. Consumers appreciate the same basic website attributes when they're shopping online, whatever their age and disposition:
- a logical, navigable graphical user interface that lets them find what they want easily and quickly
- good quality images to help them make a sensible buying decision
- an attractive, on-brand page layout that's easy to read and understand
- jargon free, benefit led site content that explains everything they need to know about a product
- a seamless, fast sales process
- swift, secure payment options
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- The writing's on the quality wall - Google's next algorithm updates
- Why bother with great web design?
- 30 ways to 'do' marketing without social media!
- The power of interaction... and why it's essential for Twitter lead generation
- Google's latest algorithm changes cause SEO consternation!
- A few words about the latest social media phenomenon, Pinterest
- Keeping social media in proportion
