brand Archives - Page 8 of 10

Put Some Bounce Into Your SMS Marketing Plans

November 18, 2015 by Thomas

Your club or other form of entertainment establishment is alive with nightlife.

Excitement and energy pulse through the space and the air is fused with electricity. You want your marketing efforts to exude the same vibe.

Have you thought about bumping up your SMS marketing?

Text message marketing is one of the smartest marketing techniques right now.

You can reach large numbers of people who will follow through on a call to action. Most people have access to text messaging and check their texts throughout the day.

With smart messaging, this can be low cost, high reward form of marketing. Your club will be even more vibrant and exciting.

As the article “6 creative ways to advertise your club’s SMS marketing program” looks at, here are some things to remember:

Motivate people to sign up with incentives – Include a free drink or discounted cover charge when they sign up for text alerts. Think about this for getting current customers to sign up immediately, as in when they are in your club – post the number to join in your club and offer a free drink with sign up.
Make it urgent – With a quick turn-around time, people are more likely to take you up on your offers. For instance, when you say you get free entrance to the club with SMS sign up, make sure you include an expiration date and make it quick, like one week.
Let your subscribers know of special events – They can be the first to know about events like ladies’ nights or special DJ’s. It’s a great way to form those connections with your customers; they’ll love the feeling of getting insider’s tips!
Post your SMS offers on your social media – The people coming to your club are probably pretty into social media, so get this out there. Those that subscribe to your Instagram and other social media will get reminders to sign up for SMS. You can also send texts now and then with social media participation reminders. These work hand in hand.

Easy She Goes with SMS Marketing

The great thing about SMS marketing is how easy it is.

Because you are limited in your text characters, you don’t have to worry about creating long winded content. Short and sweet is the way to go, with a clear call to action, a reward and an expiration date.

Be sure to text consistently, but no more than a couple of times a week. You don’t want to annoy your customers, but you want to keep their attention. Vary your incentives and be creative.

You’ll see more and more subscribers and more and more revenue coming in!

Good luck and please share anything fun and creative you’ve done with SMS marketing for your club.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Heather Legg is an independent writer who covers topics related to social media, SMS marketing strategies, and small business.

Go Blogging and See the Results

November 11, 2015 by Thomas

Do you sometimes feel like your brand is not getting the attention it deserves and more importantly needs?

For some business owners, their websites can mean the difference between a healthy brand and one that is on life support. Whether your brand is doing well or not so well, are you looking to improve it? If the answer is yes, make sure you review your blogging efforts.

Given the fact that more and more consumers are going online to browse and ultimately buy products and services; having a strong website presence (including a relevant and informative blog) is more critical than ever. So, take some time to see how you can improve your blog or even how to start a blog today.

Blogs Matter More Than Ever

No matter what product or service you sell, blogging about your line of work is a great way to not only attract new customers, but also retain current ones.

With a solid blog on your website, you can:

Promote your brand – First and foremost, promoting your brand should always be a priority. A stellar blog on your website allows you to do just that and more. The blog can be an ambassador for your brand, introducing your products and/or services to millions of consumers. Make sure the information contained in your blog is relevant, timely, and provides a call to action without coming across as a sales pitch;
Be more socially active – Having a solid blog to work with allows you to be more social, meaning go to social media. Promoting your blog posts opens the door to consumers who may not be familiar with your brand. In turn, you are more likely to get inquiries about your brand when you are publicizing it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and even YouTube. Just like with your blog, you need to be active on social media, meaning share or tweet regularly in order to maximize your opportunities;
Engage with industry experts – While some companies decide to do all their blogging in-house, many others welcome guest bloggers. If you decide to work with guest bloggers, make sure they are a good match for your site’s blog. What kind of experience do they have in blogging? Are they an authority on the topics they speak of? Do they have a decent to solid social media following and will they promote their posts and your site? Yes, some guest posters will not be a good fit for your blog, but many others could be just what you are looking for;
Use it as a networking tool – In the event your business attends a number of trade shows and conferences during the year, your blog can be a topic of discussion. Along with promoting the respective event on your blog you will be attending, bring a laptop to the event and set the viewing page to your blog. As attendees visit your booth, it can make for a great conversation piece.

If you’re looking to improve your company’s blog or finally getting around to starting one, know that it can help your brand in so many ways.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas writes about marketing your business on the web.

Businesses That Market Efficiently Typically Come Out Winners

October 28, 2015 by Thomas

What are you doing to market your brand?

In the event you have trouble answering that question, your business could already be in trouble. Those who fail to properly market their brands end up oftentimes on the outside looking in when it comes to being successful business owners.

Think about it; today’s consumers have a wide-range of products and services to choose from, both in-person and by shopping online. If you’re failing at getting your brand noticed, you stand a very good chance of getting passed over by the consumer, with him or her going to your competition.

So, how can you best spread the word about your brand?

Market Regularly and Effectively

In order to properly market your brand in 2015 and beyond, keep the following in mind:

Have a purpose – Whether you are marketing home furnishings, real estate, entertainment systems for the home, insurance or any number of products or services; make sure you market with a purpose. Having a purpose means making sure you know your demographics and the message you want to send them. It could be anything from get satellite tv service at this site to buy the cheapest auto insurance and still get the best coverage. If you’re marketing home entertainment, you could market to a wide array of people. On the other hand, you’re less likely to market auto insurance to elderly drivers who likely have a policy they’ve been with for years;
Don’t Be a Pest – One quick way to turn off both current and potential customers is by being a pest. While you’re undoubtedly looking for sales, don’t come across as too sales hungry. Most consumers don’t want to feel like you’re reaching into their pockets all the time for more money. One way to offset this is by offering stellar customer service and truly “listening” to what the customer wants. When you offer good products and services and actually hear what the customer wants, you won’t always come across as that guy or gal who is always bothering them;
Get More Mobile – Especially with the holiday’s right around the corner, your brand’s mobility truly does matter. With mobile marketing continuing to grow in popularity, offering your current and potential customers deals and special holiday shopping specials can be a boon for your business. That said keep the mobile marketing non-intrusive, meaning make sure the consumer signs-off on you contacting them;
Be Able to Adapt – Finally, effective marketing also includes being able to adapt to changes in the market. Customer needs and wants will change, so you have to too. When you have a product or services that adapts with the changing times, you are much more likely to have a brand that customers will desire, so go with the flow.

If your brand has been in neutral recently, get to marketing it more efficiently and see your revenue stream more than likely increase.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: John Peters covers the world of marketing on the web.

Make Content Marketing a Leading Strategy

September 30, 2015 by Thomas

Content marketing has been around for hundreds of years, but only recently has it been getting a lot of attention.

Essentially, content marketing is the process of advertising without advertising. This is to say that content marketing provides valuable content to consumers without overtly advertising, all while slyly incorporating a brand’s products or services.

A good example of this may be where a pest control service provides 10 essential pest control tips on Facebook with the hook that, if these tips fail, contact XYZ Pest Control.

The objective, getting the brand out there, is achieved by providing real-world tips that are valuable to the potential customer.
What Qualifies as “Valuable Content”?

Before you begin a content marketing campaign, stop and think … what would be valuable to me if I were a consumer?

While it’s easy to get lost in the world of industry jargon and technicalities, the consumer will, by and large, not understand what you mean. Therefore, try to think in simplistic terms.

What does the potential customer hope to get out of your company? What are the fears holding them back from doing business? What makes your company unique from the competition while ensuring that you can provide all that the consumer needs?

Consider all of these questions when crafting your business’ content.
Content Marketing is Great at Generating Leads

One of the biggest advantages to using content marketing is that it generates not only web traffic, which can boost search engine ranking, but it also boosts leads. The more valuable the content, the more likely people are to share this content.

In the article, “How to Generate More Leads Than Ever in 2015 With Content Marketing“, it’s pointed out that leads need to be nurtured through content.

Basically, you need an overarching theme to your brand message that transcends the content at hand.

You’ll want to form a full-force brand message about your new or existing product or service that implements value through your company’s website, social media channels, and traditional advertising in order to gain traction.
Don’t Just Throw It All at the Wall

Finally, one of the worst mistakes you can make is to generate content, throw it at the wall and see what sticks.

While it’s true that you need to monitor metrics in order to see what works and what doesn’t, taking a shotgun approach can prove to be disastrous.

Many business owners try to offer up valuable content from across a very wide spectrum of their offerings, only to find out that they lose business as a result.

Instead, plan out a strategy, determine which content marketing channels are the best bets, and then focus on target audiences in order to achieve success.

Valuable content isn’t valuable if you aren’t reaching the right people.

About the Author: Andrew Rusnak is an author who writes on topics that include content marketing and social media.

Are You Up for a Content Audit?

September 23, 2015 by Thomas

Your website is the front door to your virtual store.

The content you offer on your site is akin to the fixtures, services and products that you would have in a brick and mortar store.

Just as you would want to make sure your customers have a positive experience inside your store, you should make sure your customers enjoy visiting your website content.

Website content consists of anything and everything on your website.

That includes the written word, pictures, infographics and navigation menus. Making sure that all of your website content is optimized is critical to the success of your business.

One way to ensure that your website is working the way you want it to is to have a content audit. A content audit is a third-party, objective review of your site’s content.

When you subscribe to a content audit, you will receive a detailed, thorough report of all the things that are wrong – or right – about your website content.

Visitors are Fickle

If you’re wondering why you should invest in a content audit, consider this.

Recent studies report that most site visitors give your website no longer than 15 seconds before deciding if they are going to leave or if they are going to stay. That’s only a quarter of a minute.

As the following article looks at, if you wondered why your website needs a content audit, that should firmly answer your question.

Type of Content Matters

Some things that a content audit will uncover include problems with the content itself.

Google’s constant updates require more and better written content. Those site owners who think they are pulling one over on the Google Panda update by regurgitating old website copy are penalized with low page rankings.

Unique, engaging written content will get your website up front and in front of the competition.

Effect of Images on Your Site

Another aspect of your site that a content audit will uncover is if you have too many or too few images on your site.

For better or worse, many people who browse the Internet need images to help retain their interest.

Without pictures, many visitors will feel overwhelmed with content that appears boring or bland. Images help break up content, but at the same time, there can be too many images and not enough of the written word.

That’s where the content auditor comes in.

Through experience and analysis, a content auditor can arrive at the exact number of images your site should have in relation to the number of pages on the site, and the rest of the content.

Don’t fear a content audit. No matter what they turn up, the solution is an easy one.

You’ll either have to have a complete site redesign, or simply have to adjust a few things on the site.

Whatever the results of the audit, the answers are within your control.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Kate Supino writes extensively about best business practices.

The Proper Business of Text Messaging

September 16, 2015 by Thomas

You’ve got all of the right social media tools to help your small business out, a Facebook page, Instagram feed, Pinterest boards and a Twitter handle. Now what?

What else is your marketing calling out for? Are you working on text messaging to your client base?

If not, this is something you should consider as it’s a huge market to reach clients and increase their loyalty and longevity.

Mobility is Key

Because so many people have mobile devices these days, and keep these devices with them at virtually all times, mobile marketing has become a great platform to reach customers.

You won’t want to miss out on this market, and with a text messaging service, it’s all the easier. It’s just a matter of choosing the right one to fit your needs.

As the article, “How to choose the right text messaging service for your business” looks at, keep these ideas in mind:

Do some research – Find out the different services that providers offer, and decide what options you are looking for. Do you want it all, or will you be happy with a basic text messaging service? Check out how fees are calculated while you are doing this, because your budget is something to consider when choosing options.
Look at client support – You don’t want to get stuck with text messages going out willy-nilly, or encounter other issues with no help or support. Read some reviews and find out how the different services manage a problem and how much support they offer. You’re paying for a service; you should be able to count on support.
Compatibility – Make sure the text messaging service is compatible with the mobile service providers in your area. You want to be able to reach the major providers and if you have some smaller ones in your client base, those, too.
Look for someone willing to work with you and your needs – You want to be able to trust your text messaging service, just like you want your customers to trust you. Not only do you want support if there’s a problem, but you should also be able to look to your service for advice on what’s best for you. At the very least, you don’t want them pushing something you don’t need.
Talk to colleagues and other small business owners – Whether in person or via social media, reach out to similar business and see who they are using and if they are happy. You know how important work of mouth is, tap into it.

Any new endeavor is exciting and a little nervy.

Check into some different text messaging services; see what they offer and how each fits your needs.

Soon your customers will look forward to that weekly text from you, and your business may increase before your very eyes.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Heather Legg is an independent writer covering topics related to small business, social media and working from home.