Your marketing dollars are precious!  Lately, more and more companies are realizing that they need to tighten their marketing budgets and with today’s tools, it’s easier than ever.  However, most businesses see marketing as the first expense that is expendable.  Nothing is further from the truth.  Marketing dollars must be the last thing to go, but if you are using an out-dated marketing method, then you may not see much return and, thus, think that the only viable solution is to put your marketing money into another division of the company.

If you don’t have a marketing company working for you, then you are, most likely, having to track all marketing dollars yourself.  This can be tedious because the stress of all the other aspects of your business, such as management, inventory, customer relations, etc., can take away precious time.  A full-service multi-channel marketing company could be the answer you’re looking for in your business.  Usually, they are cheaper than an employee and because they are focused in the marketing arena, they are efficient and highly effective.

The Old Marketing Way

Making the most of your marketing moolah makes most managers mournful.  (Nice alliteration, huh.  =)  Yellow pages, newspapers, magazines, etc. have flooded the marketplace and these mediums were semi-effective in the past.  They can be effective now, but which one is the right one to use?  (I’ll come back to this.)

If you’re frustrated by the return on investment of your marketing dollars in traditional advertising, you’re not alone.

There is structural change going on in the world of advertising, in part it is being accelerated by the global downturn.
The structural changes relate to the decline of traditional advertising stalwarts, the yellow pages, print media and television advertising.

http://camg.hubpages.com/hub/Advertising-effectiveness—the-decline-of-traditional-media

Lucky for you, good news is on its way!

The new marketing way

The $64,000 marketing question is, “Which medium is the right one for me to use?”  The answer is, “I don’t know … yet.”  I stress yet, because it’s always different for different businesses.  Factors that affect this answer are:

• How much money do you have allocated to spend?
• What is your target market?
• What traditional marketing methods are you currently utilizing?

By answering these questions you can start to create a plan on how to emerge into social media and non-traditional advertising.  The biggest aspect of your current marketing efforts you will need to change, if you haven’t already integrated it, is tracking.

You’re tiny little advertisement in the newspaper may be blowing the marketing stats off the charts, but unless you’re tracking it, you’ll never know.  When you track your marketing dollars you not only start to see what is working, but what isn’t working.  Then you’ll have more money.  And what do you do with that money?  Redirect!  Don’t allow yourself to pocket wasted marketing dollars.  Use it to push yourself into another marketing arena like social media which has a huge return on investment, if you use it properly

Blue Finn Creative Group has made a huge impact in Grand Junction businesses by doing just this.  We consult you first to find out what you are currently using your marketing dollars for.  We then create marketing strategies to integrate your current plan and then build you a community of followers in social media, like Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Give us the opportunity and we can not only redirect your marketing dollars, but eventually save you money in the end.

Redirect Your Marketing Dollars

Article Source: Advertising Effectiveness
Article: Redirect Your Marketing Dollars
Author: Lee Pettijohn

Social Media is Not a Stage

Social media has been widely popular because of it’s ability to engage people in conversations.  Grand Junction businesses are realizing more and more that they can have two-way conversations with their customers through social media instead of just one-way.  When business strategies only include one-way communication, they leave their consumers without a voice.  This makes it frustrating for those who want to be heard as well.  Social media eliminates the “soap box” and allows a discussion to commence.

Some businesses use social media as a way to convey information to their customers.  This, in and of itself, is not detrimental to a business, but can lead to devastating effects if left alone.  By exclusively posting or updating your status on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, you lead the way to the monologue and consumers will start to recognize this immediately.  However, if you utilize  your posts in social media to start conversations you eliminate the monologue mentality.

Social Media is a Round Table

If King Arthur were alive today, you can bet he would be a proponent of social media.  By giving consumers a voice and an opinion through social media, you allow them to come to the table and express themselves.  Emails paved the way for consumers to have open communication with a company.  The ability to respond was key in a company’s ability to judge the marketplace and quickly adapt to the changing surroundings.  Social media took emails one step further and allowed others the opportunity to voice their opinions in an open-air system.

When social media is used as a monologue, it’s seen by others as a waste of time.  Boring.  Self-serving.  But when social media is seen as a dialog, it can be engaging, meaningful, productive, and generous.

http://www.benreed.net/index.php/2011/05/02/social-media-monologue/

While success for a Grand Junction business does not necessarily depend on their emergence into social media, it definitely gives some companies the upper-hand.  Social media is to today’s society like web design was several years ago. Those businesses that utilize social media and text messaging as a combined strategy have an even higher advantage.  Some businesses have the luxury of keeping a staff member specifically designated to maintaining their social media presence.  If you are looking for a local Grand Junction marketing company to help you manage and maintain your social media campaign, contact us at Blue Finn Creative Group for a free consultation and let us help you engage in your customers ongoing conversations.

Social Media Killed the Monologue

Article Source: Blue Finn Creative Group
Article: Social Media Killed the Monologue
Author: Lee Pettijohn

According to research Google conducted with IPSOS in 2011, 79 percent of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping, from comparing prices, to finding more product info, to locating a retailer.
Additionally, 70 percent use their smartphones while in a store, 77 percent have contacted a business via mobile, with 61 percent calling and 59 percent visiting the local business.
- http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/strategy/11817.html

But how do you get Grand Junction consumers to your mobile website quickly and efficiently?  Mobile connectors is the solution!  These tools can take any ordinary Grand Junction business and launch their efforts exponentially.  Mobile connectors that point to your mobile web design can offer a greater reach to consumers at every turn of their lifestyle.

Mobile Web Design Connectors

A key conduit for your customer relationships is through your mobile web design.  This is why your mobile website connector is so vital.  The two best ways to access a mobile web design is through a QR code or a text messaging service.

QR codes have increased in popularity over the years.  They have many different ways to be utilized; contact information, map locations, mobile website addresses, etc.  Typing on a mobile device can be a very tedious venture.  QR codes makes this process easy. By downloading a QR reader,  like Qrafter, and pointing your mobile device at a QR code, you can easily have your customers in Grand Junction access your personal mobile web designed site.  One easy way to distinguish your company is to have a custom graphic designed QR code that accentuates your brand.

Text messaging is the process of a customer text messaging a keyword to a short code (usually a 5 digit number like, 32274).  While QR codes are beginning to be more recognized by the Grand Junction population, text messaging is gaining ground for two reasons.  First, text messaging allows you to automatically send a message to your customers when they send a keyword to a short code.  This message can contain a message and a short URL which points to your mobile web design page.  The second reason text messaging is increasing in popularity is that you can keep a database of numbers of people who want to keep in touch with your company.

Choosing the Right Mobile Web Design Connectors

When customers have a specific need, they will turn to your mobile web for a quick answer.  Knowing which mobile website connector to use is crucial.  If it’s quick information your customers are looking for, then QR codes is the way to go.  If customers not only want quick information, but they are also looking for constant updates, the text messaging is your best option and offers a sense of urgency and can point to your mobile web design or even your Facebook page, all in one package.

As the awareness and adoption curve towards mobile web designs accelerates, hesitating can damage your business position.  A mobile web design encourages your competition to create long-term user habits for your market and can increase awareness in your social media campaigns as well. Start integrating your mobile web design into your mobile marketing strategy and let Blue Finn, a local Grand Junction marketing company, guide and direct your business venture utilizing these specific connectors.

Connecting Your Business and Mobile Web Design

Article Source: Blue Finn Creative Group
Article: Connecting Your Business and Mobile Web Design
Author: Tami Russell

Text messaging truly provides the adhesive element that businesses need to make a real, visible-connection to online, mobile users and shoppers. This will ultimately turn into a new client base that drives sales, as well as retains the already established customer base.

Social Media Cornerstone

In the lives of consumers, social media like Facebook has become a cornerstone to social interaction as well as prequalification for businesses where they intend to spend hard-earned dollars on products and services. In fact, this revolution has changed how traditional advertising speaks to current customers and prospects.

Facebook allows companies and service providers a way to learn about their audience. It gives them targeted and track-able information that evens the playing field for companies and brands of every size and industry. Facebook can deliver a far greater reach than any other communicative channel offered in today’s marketplace that has real-time, immediate action. Now accompany this social media platform with text messaging. You’ll discover that this personal connection to the consumer drives sales, builds relationships and brings awareness.

Text Messaging and Social Media Example

I have a Grand Junction fashion boutique business owner as a client that has been established for less than a year. Having to change locations abruptly, the extra added expense brought a great deal of stress and financial un-certainty. Having been versed in Facebook on a social level, she was trying to utilize the platform for communication to friends about available inventory, having little success. Given the move, there was no money available in the budget for traditional advertising to market the address change.  Luckily, prior to the move she had been collecting mobile phone numbers from her customers, who agreed to offers, promos and exclusive saving to be text messaged to them.  After a short strategy consultation on how to build a ‘buzz’ about her Grand Junction company that included strategically written, relevant Facebook postings, text messaging and the simple effort of execution. The initial Facebook pitch included an inventory blowout sale that drove urgency for the first 100 Facebook ‘likes’ to receive 75% off and encouraged them to repost to all friends and family as well as with our social media database, which also included her new address change. This effort was accompanied by a supporting text message that initiated the ‘forward to a friend’ action that drove her sales to an astonishing $800 in less then a four hour time period. The question from the young Grand Junction businesswoman was, “can I do this everyday?” The answer is simple, yes.

Uses for the Social Media platform Facebook and Text Messaging

• Brand Awareness
• Details about services and special or exclusive savings
• Company News and Events
• Customer success stories
• Customer Support
• Building Relationships
• Sharing Public Resources
• Announcements
• Educational Alerts
• Promotion of Activities
• Reminders
• Prompting Feedback
• Content launch Teaser
• Exclusive/ Social Only Information

There are many more options and strategies to using Facebook and text messaging together to build your business. All of which are measurable by current network users, potential impressions, confirmed impressions, engagement by content and mentions by audience. It’s imperative that you talk to an expert for a consultation to see how your business can grow with these technologies.

The conclusion is that if your business needs to make more money and stay consistent year around, at an affordable price, Social Media and Text message marketing will make a difference, shed new light and bring excitement to your business. Start building your social and text database today to insure a healthy return this holiday season…. Plus start out the New Year with a bang!

Article Source: Social media integration and text message marketing
Article: Text Messaging and Social Media Integration
Author: Tami Russell

What social media does is energize your fan base with conversational marketing. For instance, try using social media for your company’s philanthropic activities. Set-up channels with content about your initiatives and make it easy for others to virally spread the news.  On Facebook, this is best utilized through picture posts. Then you will truly see the power of social media marketing. Tie in your content from your social media platform with the power of text messaging, a custom landing page in your web design and you will discover how multi-channel digital marketing can increase your reach beyond any traditional advertising platform you’ve used in the past.

Social media, text messaging, and your web design allow you to discover, cultivate, and brand enthusiasts about you, your company and the service or products you offer. There are people out there that love your brand and by joining in conversation with them and sharing information with them you will be cultivating a true brand enthusiast. If you go about it in a personal, relevant way to their lifestyle, you will make them feel like a part of your inner circle. Then this person will share their positive feeling about you with their friends, both online and in the real world. The real key to social media success integrated with text messaging, your web design, and traditional advertising is content, which is why it is important to have a professional marketing company  in your arsenal.

Social Media and Text Messaging Content

Everything begins and ends with content; both in your social media platform and your text messaging.  Social Media is not about you, it’s about your audience; future clients and current customers. If you publish relevant, compelling, well-orchestrated content and make it interesting as well as valuable to them you will build that brand enthusiast. Start a dialogues in your Grand Junction social media that will engage your client, dialogue that can be shared with others and encouraged to go viral, talk to people that are like-minded. Send out plugs in your text messaging database that support your dialog to allow them to connect to your place of business, or land on your website to drive a call to action … this is where you’ll start to see a much greater return from your efforts as well as marketing dollars spent.

What Kind of Social Media Content

Many times people misunderstand content and it’s various forms. We tend to think of content in terms of a blog post we share, a news article, a video or photo. Content goes much deeper than that. Social media content comes in numerous forms, from posting what you are eating, to conversation, sharing a quote, sharing a link to an event, or information about who you are and what you have to offer.

It’s plain text. Text that drives someone to click a link and/or everything in between!  Here are samples of common social media content.

1. Huddles = Conversation with 2 or more people in social media about a specific subject. Usually done via Twitter in chat, in a chat room or forum. Very useful when trying to determine a new product or resolve conflict or customer complaint.
2. Bow = Recognizing a milestone and offering thanks to those who made it happen. Usually used when a certain amount of likes are reached. Or to recognize a fan who contributed to campaign going viral.
3. Hallmark = Merry Christmas, Thanksgiving, amount of years in the biz, and generating compelling message for a good cause.
4. X Factor = Mystery Post that make people start asking question and leaving comments. Good for building buzz in social media around an item or call-to- action. This can also be very entertaining but you must pay attention to what is being said.  People can do, and say the strangest things. Pay attention or find out if your Grand Junction marketing company can monitor this for you (Blue Finn can)!!!
5. Black Hole = This is when you post and generate zero comments, shares, or like’s. You must not do this more than once a week as it will drive down analytics.
6. Hothead = This is content that is controversial or causes a back lash from your fans. Usually, this ends with lost clients or unhappy customers. Just because it’s funny  to you, doesn’t always mean it should be shared. Never put a client on the hot seat in any social media realm as  you will lose every time.
7. Must Read = Content that is very important to you, usually a very compelling call-to-action or call-to-interact.
8. The Photographer = My favorite picture post with a message. Remember, sometimes a picture can say more than a paragraph, therefore less can be more.  This is the best way for something to go viral in social media.  Your marketing company should be able to handle the graphic design element of this content.
9. The Reporter = Second favorite, post a video about your business, staff or client experience. This is a great way to build your brand and recognize an exceptional staff member or business associate.
10. The Check-In = When you post a special or promo that can only be redeemed by showing a Facebook message.

As you can see there are many different ways to communicate to your fan base through social media. It’s important to plan strategic, well orchestrated content that allows for your audience to interact and become enthusiasts for you, your product or service, and place of business. Think about those things that drive people to love what you do and offer. Engage your audience and connect using digital channels like text messaging, custom web design and retain them with relevant content on your social media platforms.   Contact Blue Finn, a local Grand Junction marketing company and let us give you a free consultation into social media.

Multi-channel digital marketing solutions, dose not just create new customers, it creates brand evangelists. Get started today.

Article Source: Social media integration and text message marketing
Article: Social Media and Text Messaging Create Brand Enthusiasts
Author: Tami Russell