Reputation Management Tips

April 29, 2013 By Mike J Leave a Comment

Keep a Watchful Eye on Your Online Reputation

Think your online reputation doesn’t matter? Think again! As outlined by a study by Erik Qualman of Socialnomics.com, nearly three-quarters of respondents say they trust the information provided by total strangers online. Further, some 80 percent of consumers have changed their minds about purchasing a product after reading a negative review online, and over 84 percent say they find online product reviews to be a trustworthy source of information.

This adds up to one simple fact: when those negative reviews or complaints make an appearance, (and they will!) you need to take them seriously and take countermeasures to lessen the negative effects!

Let’s look at five proven strategies to do that. [Read more…]

Client Surveys

March 26, 2013 By Mike J Leave a Comment

Your Customers: Talking Trash or Making You Cash? Why You Need to Know

Do you truly know how well you’re doing with your clients and customers? Are there trouble spots or holes in your customer support you’re unaware of? Want to discover what they really think? There’s really only one way to get this information—ask them! A well-crafted customer survey can be a useful tool to help you discover the answers to these and several other things you may not even have known were issues for your customers.

So why ask at all?

The primary incentive for a customer survey is to eliminate problems before they become part of your reputation, and reveal ways to strengthen your service or products. Most of the time, we never learn about a dissatisfied customer: they’ll simply look somewhere else. CustomerThink.com has discovered that more than half of consumers have experienced issues and complaints with the products and services they’ve purchased. Creating a survey helps you find and rectify mistakes which might be the difference between hanging onto a client or not.

What sort of questions work best? [Read more…]

Mobile Marketing Strategy

March 15, 2013 By Mike J Leave a Comment

How to Cash in on the Mobile Revolution

More people these days are accessing the web using their mobile devices, and if you’re not at least mapping out a mobile marketing strategy for your small business to get a part of this, you’re leaving a lot of money for another business. Over half of all local searches are executed on mobile devices of some type. People are doing business on the fly, shopping and price comparing on the way to a store. You need to simply make sure it’s yours! Listed below are five ways to make it happen!

Get your site mobile ready – Being sure your site is viewable on any mobile device is a crucial first step. The emphasis here is on a fast loading site. It has been shown that you have about five seconds for your site to load on a mobile device or your viewer is on their way to someplace else. Make certain your site loads quickly and accurately.
Offer deals, coupons and incentives to readers – 29% of web consumers have showed a desire to download a coupon using their mobile device. Take them up on this!
Utilizing inexpensive mobile ads – Mobile paid advertising remains somewhat in its infancy, but there is a lot of opportunity here. Prices are still very low, and you can receive a lots of traffic to your website utilizing mobile ads.
Create a mobile loyalty program – Utilizing a mobile platform to develop a mobile loyalty program is simply a smart thing to do. No longer only used by eating establishments, you can make rabid fans by making use of a simple, easy to use digital loyalty card application.
Utilize mobile email and SMS – Mobile email is being opened at a rate of 41%, and it’s on pace to surpass PC open rates by the end of 2013, reported by MarketingLand.com. SMS (texting) boasts a whopping 95% open rate. These two stats by themselves should be plenty to get you involved with the mobile side of marketing!

Social Media Mistakes

March 12, 2013 By Mike J Leave a Comment

5 Deadly Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

Social media is a ripe land for developing connections, and also for offending and creating enemies. Knowing what you shouldn’t do in relation to social media is almost as vital as knowing what you should be doing. Here are some social media mistakes to avoid like the plague!

Jokes in poor taste – It should be obvious, but you must put on your thinking cap before you tweet, update or post. And above all, don’t try and benefit from someone else’s misfortune as a way to promote your products or services. While a celebrity death or embarrassment might appear to be easy pickings for trending traffic, you can actually end up alienating more people than you attract!

Offending your customers – Right up there with poor taste humor is the inclination to state your preferences, political, social or otherwise, that may or may not agree with those of your clients and customers. Use your head! Don’t talk about anything with the general public that might cause offense or be misunderstood, or you’ll pay big for this type of transgression.

Not making business only accounts – An account solely dedicated to your company has not only a greater chance of being found in the search engine results, it projects an altogether more professional image for your business.

Not using social media buttons on your site – These are so simple to apply, and available for all social media platforms. You’re literally throwing traffic away if you don’t make use of these simple tools to extend your reach by making them available for your homepage and all the content you create. This is very easy to do.

Not using the links from your social sites – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google all will let you link back to your website from your profile page, as well as from posts. This is an fantastic way to obtain some easy, authoritative links that will help others find you as well.

Social Media Marketing

December 4, 2012 By Mike J Leave a Comment

The Social Media saga continues… The next time a so called ‘Social Media Expert’ attempts to convince you why social media is extremely important, consider this very enlightening study that outlines some interesting facts about consumers. Although social media is very important, as a business owner, you need to truly understand the consumers’ view and what is important to them. Only then will you be able to effectively utilize this marketing tool.

The Engagement Marketing Disconnect Between Consumers and Brands Rages On

socialmediatoday.com – “After surveying 250 marketing executives and over 2,000 consumers, it’s clear that what marketers consider to be high-value engagement is not always thought of in the same way by consumers.”

The above line is from a recent report put out by Forbes Insights and Turn called “The New Rules of engagement: Measuring the Power of Social Currency” and unfortunately continues a trend – a trend I myself have written about as far back as last December.

Last December I wrote of The Major Disconnect Between Brands and Consumers When It Comes to Social Media. About a month later I followed that up with Even More Proof of the Major Disconnect Between Brands and Consumers When It Comes to Social Media. Each article touched on a different survey/study which showed a huge divide between why marketers think a consumer likes/follows a brand on social media vs. why a consumer actually does so.

Well according to the aforementioned Forbes Insights study the disconnect is alive and well and may even be widening.

From the Key Findings of the report:

Marketers view consumers’ proactivity via social media as more engaging then consumers do. The inflation of “engagement” in this case has been caused by the ease of social media use and equating online followers with successful marketing. Measurement of social media engagement is an area where CMOs often don’t know what they don’t know.
Fundamental disconnects in how marketers and consumers understand and value engagement tactics may cost marketers great opportunities. The biggest schisms are found in approach to redemption rates, discount codes and loyalty programs. Additionally, marketers’ attempts at personalization and customization engage few consumers. This finding may stem from consumers’ high expectations of what true customization and personalization stands for.
Consumers identify strongly with brands, particularly younger consumers, who view their relationship with brands as a reflection of self. And they approach and interact with them in a variety of ways, from social media to traditional advertising. They don’t necessarily view this as engagement, however. Rather, their view of how they interact with and relate to brands is much more holistic.

Just take a look at the chart below and spot all the disconnects between what marketers value compared to what consumers value.

Perhaps the most glaring example of a disconnect from the above chart lies in the fact that 49% of marketers rate forwards or shares of ads or other content online as a strong influence on their engagement measures, but just 15% of consumers say they feel engaged or invested in a brand when they share an ad.

So the next time all you marketers out there break into a happy dance because 100 people shared your ad you may want to temper your enthusiasm just a tad as it is not indicative of a consumer who is necessarily engaged with your brand per se.

And you also may want to not take out your dancing shoes just because you grew your Twitter followers by X%.

Different Strokes

From the report:

“The two groups (consumers and marketers) differ fundamentally in how they define the state of engagement with a brand; what companies consider engaging is not considered anywhere near so by consumers. But this also cuts both ways: some activities that consumers consider highly engaging are seen as less important by marketers. This may be costing companies great opportunities to engage consumers.”

The first two results alone from the chart above say it all and if not all, they say a lot. Consumers are creatures of habit, they are human beings which means they want something in return for their engaging with your brand.

From the aforementioned The Major Disconnect Between Brands and Consumers When It Comes to Social Media:

This Is Not Just About Social Media Engagement

The need to engage with consumers extends well beyond the scope of social media. People want the personal touch, they want to know brands understand them and offer the ability to create a brand experience that matches their individual tastes.

Yet that is apparently not happening as you will see another example of the major disconnect between consumers and brands.

From the report:

“72% of marketing executives say that they have personally reached out to customers, but just 9% of consumers say that they feel engaged or invested in a brand because of such gestures. The personal connection has been a cornerstone of marketing strategy.”

And since I am such a huge fan of infusing humor into, well just about everything in my life but especially advertising and marketing, I had to share this one final finding from the report which speaks directly to the power of humor to connect and engage.

Sources: Forbes Insights, MarketingCharts.com, Google Images

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a senior content strategist at Responsys, a leading global provider of on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions.

As a business owner, the time you spend working on your business is vitally important to your company’s success. Considering the enormous amount of time it takes to stay focused on current social media trends, you need a team of experts that you can count on to provide timely and accurate marketing techniques that produce results. We believe your time is better spent working on what you know best, your industry. Let us focus on the latest social media trends; contact us today for a free initial evaluation and consultation.

Smartphones and Mobile Marketing

November 27, 2012 By Mike J Leave a Comment

Image the customers you are losing by not having a mobile optimized website! This article provides real life data that confirms that mobile is the future of targeted marketing.

Smartphones win for traffic, tablets for revenue over Thanksgiving

By Chantal Tode

November 27, 2012

The iPad drove Thanksgiving revenue for retailers

All signs point to mobile having played a significant role for shoppers over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. However, taking a closer look at the numbers, there were clear differences between smartphone and tablet consumers.

It appears that tablets – in particular the iPad – were a significant driver of online sales over the holiday weekend. Smartphones, on the other hand, proved to be significant traffic drivers and invaluable in-store shopping tools.

“This weekend proved how incredibly important mobile commerce has become, and how influential these channels are for retailers,” said Scott Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, Morrisville, NC. “The line between online and offline commerce continues to blur as consumers whip out their mobile devices to compare prices while shopping in bricks-and-mortar stores, or shop online while waiting in line for Black Friday deals.

“Retailers need to make sure that their Web sites are mobile-optimized to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to purchase via these channels,” he said.

Smart in-store shopping
Overall, 24 percent of consumers used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site over Thanksgiving and Black Friday, up from 14.3 percent last year, according to data from IBM.

Smartphones were the stronger in-store mobile device.

IBM also found that 58 percent of consumers used smartphones in stores to shop for bargains on Black Friday compared with 41 percent who used tablets.

Overall, mobile sales increased significantly, reaching 16 percent of online sales, up from 9.8 percent last year, per IBM.

Also pointing to the strength of smartphones for in-store shopping are results from price comparison app PriceGrabber, which reports that smartphones accounted for 17.8 percent of its traffic on Sunday, Nov. 25 compared with 11.50 percent for tablets.

Smartphone use is also growing faster, up 3,288.5 percent from last year compared to 1,027.5 percent for tablets. PriceGrabber’s desktop traffic dropped 13.5 percent.

Smartphone users accessed store locators, wish lists and reviews more frequently than tablet users, per Branding Brand.

Tablet commerce
Overall, it appears that smartphones were the biggest drivers of online traffic, with 20 percent of the total while tablets were the biggest drivers of revenue with 14 percent of the total, per Branding Brand.

“Tablet users consistently spent more per order than smartphone and desktop users,” said Chris Mason, CEO of Branding Brand, Pittsburgh, PA. “On Thanksgiving, the average order value of a tablet user was two percent higher than desktop users, on Black Friday it was nine percent higher.

Tablet users viewed approximately two more pages per visit than smartphone users and converted at rate 3.5 higher than smartphone users, according to Branding Brand.

Some retailers may have been caught off guard by the strength of tablet commerce over the holiday weekend. A recent report from Skava found that only seven percent of the top 100 U.S. online retailers have a tablet-optimized Web site while 95 percent are optimized for smartphones.

The retailers without a strong tablet experience could end up being among the biggest losers this holiday season. The Skava report reveals that tablet shoppers are more lucrative online shoppers than smartphone users, with 2.3 percent of tablet shoppers likely to purchase goods online compared to 0.6 percent of smartphone users.

By device, the iPad was one of the biggest factors driving mobile shopping and commerce over Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Shoppers are using mobile to look for deals and special offers and the iPad is a big winner. ShopLocal, a division of Gannet that delivers retailer offers online and via mobile, reports that so far in November, its iPad traffic has grown 172 percent compared with 67 percent for mobile overall.

IBM’s data reveals that the iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, reaching nearly ten percent of online shopping. The iPad also dominated tablet traffic with an 88.3 percent share followed by the Barnes and Noble Nook with 3.1 percent, the Amazon Kindle with 2.4 percent and the Samsung Galaxy with 1.8 percent.

In terms of mobile traffic overall, the iPhone came in second with 8.7 percent of mobile traffic and Android with 5.5 percent.

“Mobile is no longer a sliver of your audience,” Branding Brand’s Mr. Mason said. “It is quickly becoming the main point of interaction.

“Retailers should enter 2013 with a mobile-first strategy for their e-commerce presence,” he said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York

If you are interest in learning how to implement mobile marketing for your business, contact us today and we will help guide you through the complicated process.

Mobile Marketing Tipping Point

November 24, 2012 By Mike J Leave a Comment

We think you will find the following mobile marketing article interesting. As you will note, there is an extremely large mobile device user market that your company must focus on to ensure success in the future. With the onset of companies focusing their marketing efforts on mobile devices, you are likely to experience increased calls from marketing companies promising extraordinary results. Although mobile devices are the future, mobile is only one marketing segment your company needs to implement. There is no silver bullet!

5 reasons why we have reached the mobile marketing tipping point

By Amielle Lake

Over the last four years, we have witnessed the life-transforming impact that mobile devices have in our everyday lives.

Yet, brand budgets for mobile are still surprisingly small.

As we leap into another year, I am optimistic that things are improving for us mobile marketers. I might even be so cliché as to say that the year of mobile is here or at least near.

While brand adoption may not have been as rapid as the industry might have earlier predicted, warp speed growth is definitely in store.

Here are 5 reasons why we have reached the tipping point.

1. Smartphone adoption in the US has neared almost 50 percent: Smartphone adoption marches on, with 44 percent of mobile phone users owning a smartphone, compared with 18 percent in 2009, according to Nielsen.

2. Adults read more news on their mobile than print: EMarketer released a report that found the average adult consumer spends 65 minutes a day on their mobile device, while they spend only 44 minutes with print media – 26 minutes with newspapers, and 18 minutes with magazines.

3. Global brands issuing request for proposals for Mobile Agency of Record: Perhaps this is a less observed trend, as it certainly is not something that industry analysts follow. However, Tagga has been party to and witnessed several formal RFP calls for Mobile Agencies of Record. If this is not a definitive sign of commitment to mobile by marketers, then I do not know what is.

Smaller brands will follow suit. In fact, Agencies are now clamoring to improve their capability-set to demonstrate a robust mobile foundation – many opening up mobile divisions.

Top brands as of late signing up MAORs (Mobile Agency of Record) include American Cancer Society, Proctor and Gamble, Kraft Foods and a host of others.

4. Global brands are changing their DNA to launch truly integrated campaigns: Tagga had the pleasure of participating and speaking at a conference where the Chief Marketing Officers of Visa, Citigroup North American and Samsung (LATAM) participated. Each presenter spoke of dissolving their siloed digital and traditional teams in order to combine them into a single group.

Why? To effectively launch truly integrated multi-channel campaigns. These thought-leaders clearly saw mobile and social as mechanisms to add more value to their traditional media initiatives.

By breaking down marketing silos, brands will be able to harness the true power of mobile – engaging with a consumer wherever they are and giving them what they want, whenever they want it.

5. Social media is mobile: With social media and mobile on the scene, marketers often grappled with the notion of how the two mediums play together.

Facebook CEO best settled the debate by pronouncing Facebook as on path to becoming a mobile company.

According to a recent cNET article, Facebook has more than 350 million mobile users – out of 800 million total, and that the proportion will swing to more than 50 percent within the next year. Most of Facebook’s users in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa, are via mobile devices.

As the lines between social and mobile become increasingly blurry, marketers will drive towards an approach that integrates technologies that leverage all capabilities of the mobile device, from foursquare to augmented reality.

With the rapid adoption of mobile devices, in particular smartphones, the challenge of the marketer has shifted.

Consumers are channel agnostic, and want to be communicated to in a relevant, transparent and timely manner – whether they are on the go or not, offline or online.

With the convergence of these trends, it is not hard to see why marketers will turn to mobile to drive results.

To quote Frost & Sullivan, is not hard to see why mobile marketing will become “the most important vehicle of all time.”

Amielle Lake is CEO of Tagga Media, Vancouver, Canada

At iConcepts Marketing we believe in conducting a thorough assessment of your current marketing initiatives and make realistic recommendation to help achieve realistic goals. Give us a call today, complete our contact form, or fill out the form on the left for your Free Initial Consultation.

Yellow Pages – Obsolete Advertising?

October 26, 2012 By Mike J Leave a Comment

What’s a business owner to do?

Recently there was a news item from the Orlando, Florida area regarding Yellow Pages. What makes an ubiquitous book like the Yellow Pages a news story? Exactly that! They are everywhere! Evidently, at least in the Orlando area, something is going to be done about it.

It doesn’t matter if you are a small business owner or a consumer, you have the same problem. Which book do I use? The consumer is only going to keep so many Yellow Page books and a business can only afford to advertise in a few. Of course both parties are looking for the same thing — Results! Either you want to find what you are looking for in the Yellow Pages you decide to keep – or – you want sales from the book you decided to advertise in.

[Read more…]

Your Business and the Internet

October 15, 2012 By Mike J Leave a Comment

The pressure is on those small local business owners who have been holding out, hoping that the Internet would just go away. It’s become fairly obvious that that’s not going to happen.

As a matter of fact, the Kelsey Group says that “…small-business owners/operators reported that their use of the Internet has exceeded that of traditional media. We view this as a critical milestone for the direction of local ad spending.”

It’s become obvious that small business owners who don’t have an Online presence are at a serious disadvantage and are losing more ground every day to their competitors.

But where do you start? Many small business owners want to get online but the idea becomes overwhelming. One of the things many people are concerned about is the cost. Having a professional website created can be expensive, as can the online marketing needed to promote the site. Fortunately, iConcepts Marketing has a variety of online solutions for small businesses.

[Read more…]

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Reputation Management Tips

Client Surveys

Mobile Marketing Strategy

Smartphones and Mobile Marketing

Smartphones win for traffic, tablets for revenue over Thanksgiving

Mobile Marketing Tipping Point

5 reasons why we have reached the mobile marketing tipping point

Yellow Pages – Obsolete Advertising?

Your Business and the Internet

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