The Bulls Roar » Branding

What’s all the Hype About Location Based Marketing?

AnnieInfinite — Sun, 02 May 2010 22:30:06 +0000

: Image by dpstyles™ via Flickr

The new ‘smart’ phones are about to change the web again forever and one of the ways you can stay ahead of the game, along with making sure your site is optimized for mobile is to ‘geo-tag’ your site with one of the new location based social sites: Foursquare, Gowalla, BriteKite, Yelp, MyTown…

A simple explanation for these new geo-tagging sites is that location based social networking allows members of those communities to share their location through GPS, mobile email or text message. Once you have been located in an area you can then get a list of businesses and venues to choose from, simply choose the coffee shop, shopping centre, club or resort where you are actually located and ‘check in’. Once you have done this you can add comments and reviews about the venue, or let friends know your there and meet up.

For members this allows them to broadcast their whereabouts and ask others to join them, or just show off, but for businesses this is a whole new ballgame!

What’s really interesting about an app like Foursquare, currently the leading location based community site, after coming from behind after a late start, is how local businesses can leverage their presence on the site to attract more customers. The idea is that Foursquare and Gowalla and others give out ‘badges’ and other kinds of kudos to members for checking in. The more times you check in the more badges and honours the member gets until they earn what is called a ‘Mayorship’ (on Foursquare).

A ‘Mayorship’ usually comes with a prize and this is determined by the business itself, usually a discount or an extra added bonus for being a regular. This takes ‘checking in’to your business to the level of an online game and gaming is huge!

Let’s give an example:

Imagine you are visiting a new city for the first time, before you go you log onto the site and search for “resorts in Noosa” and up pops a list of resorts, scrolling through you find the perfect accommodation (with great onsite reviews) for you and make a booking after noting down the phone number or website booking page. When you arrive at the resort you make sure to ‘checkin’ at Foursquare as you check into your hotel, you get to your room and using your phone again you log on and ‘search’ the area for a restaurant, you have a taste for Thai food tonight so your search is for “Thai food in Noosa.” Again a list of suitable place pops up and you check the reviews and find one that everyone seems to rave about and ring them and make a reservation. Of course when you get there you ‘check in’ at Foursquare as they have a special, if you check in 3 times you will get a free bottle of wine with your meal.

Next morning you want to shop…

Now the list of sites you get is based on those smart early adopters who have listed their sites and/or made sure their sites were coded with GIS data, those that don’t show up have lost out. Are you listed?

From a marketing perspective the introduction of location based social sites is a goldmine:

Prequalified Target: The consumer is already near you and looking for something in your area, if you are closer to where the customer is located they are much more likely to come to you – location based marketing. Interestingly if the consumer doesn’t use a search term the site they are using just gives them a list of businesses near them so there is also the probability of dropins as people learn that your business is close.
Increased Impulse Buying: Your marketing message is delivered to the consumer, in real time, as they search for businesses in their area, e.g. “Customers who dine with us in the next 30 minutes recieve a 15% discount,” prompting an immediate response.
Relationship Marketing: Customers who frequent your business earn badges and ‘Mayorships’ thus earning loyalty bonuses and building a relationship with you and your business (there are many ways this can be capitalised on in a win-win for you and your customer). This also create a history with you which can be used as research for your marketing, tracking what works and what doesn’t and responding to the customer trends allows you to give your customers what they want from you.
Targeted Promotions and Direct Marketing: Your promotions are truly targetted to your customers in real time via their own location, search and ‘checkin’ habits and are delivered on demand. No waste of flyers or advertising in other ways.
Customer Engagement: By earning badges and bonuses your customer feels like a ‘star’ in your eyes and uses this emotional engagement to boast to their friends, creating brand recognition and loyatly and amazing word-of-mouth marketing that easily goes fractal (my version of viral).
ROI: Loyaty and ‘Gaming’ for badges and Mayorships determines a high rate of repeat ‘checkins’ and purchases with amazing Return on Investment.

If you are going to use more than one site for instance Foursquare and Gowalla make sure you have thoroughly researched beforehand the different ways these sites earn customer loyalty and plan ahead. Add your website and your specials to each site and then make sure you advertise your presence on these sites and the specials customers and clients will recieve for ‘checking in’ on social media and on the front door of your business/es.

Make sure everyone who interacts with your business knows that you are on these sites and that you are rewarding loyalty online and offline!

These new location bases social sites are still new and updating their customization options all the time so make sure you keep track of what’s available to businesses e.g. :

Foursquare: Once you have an account on Foursquare you can then create to-do lists giving users and ‘friends’ a list of places to explore in your area, imagine the possibilities of adding to-do lists that include your business?

You can then add your business, if it is already added by someone else you can then claim your business which will be verified by them via phone call or email to make sure you really are the manager or marketing manager of that site. When you do this you immediately have the chance to create your first visitors and Mayorship specials.

Please know ahead of time what specials you would like to offer people for their loyaly, there are options to reward customers for different levels of loyatly including how many visits, immediate specials…

Then it is time to decide how to use the many options available to your business to reward customer loyalty:

Coupons
Travel and sightseeing tips
Recommendations (cross marketing opportunities abound)
Specials

Now it’s up to you, how many ways can you think of to use this new location based marketing?

More links for your research into Location Based Marketing:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/04/20/google-local-business-center-now-google-places
http://mashable.com/2010/02/19/business-geolcation-ready/
http://mashable.com/2009/12/10/fourquare-tips/
http://mashable.com/2010/01/15/10-foursquare-apps/

The Zen Bull

© AnnieInfinite for The Bulls Roar, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: geo-tagging, location based marketing, location based social sites, Social Media

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What Facebook’s new ‘Likes’ and ‘Interests’ Means for Marketers

AnnieInfinite — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:50:31 +0000

Unless your head is stuck in the sand you will have noticed that Facebook no longers allows you to ‘Fan’ a Page, but rather to ‘Like’ a page and while most people are trying to get their head around this new change and figure out what it means I can tell you one thing, it means that marketers are applauding.

Why, I hear you ask?

First of all go take another look at the ‘Info’ tab on your profile, if you’re like many FBer’s you hardly ever look at your own ‘Info’ tab, you will see that now all the information you filled out on that page concerning your interests both business and personal have been attached to new pages with their own Thumbnails, some of these thumbnails have no real pages – yet.

What this means for marketers is that you can now target your marketing according to all this new information which is being indexed and geo – tagged via Google!

Let me run that by you again – everything that you fill out on your Info tab is now not only indexable and targetable it is being used by Facebook to do just that! That’s why we do not ‘Fan’ pages any more, this is why we now like Pages – because we can now target those ‘likes and interests’ and market directly to the people who have clicked on them.

No longer are fans only targetable by their own pages, they are targetable via their own profiles and the ‘likes and interests’ that are catalogued on their profiles as well. Now every time you click you ‘LIKE’ something: e.g. a movie, book, music, a news story or an FB Page – this data is added to the general social search engine that is Facebook and this updates your permanent Facebook profile at the same time.

Now I want to make it clear Facebook does not expose your data to everyone – only to those people you’ve have given permission to as a friend will actually see your profile as always, but the collated data us now being used by Facebook Advertising to target marketing more specifically to those who have shown an interest via the ‘likes and interests’ including FB Pages on their profile.

This makes FaceBook Advertising rival Google and perhaps be even more influencial, FB are not relying on keywords but rather YOUR likes and interests, now that’s a step forward in the evolution of online marketing!!

For more information check out this Mashable post: http://mashable.com/2010/04/19/facebook-pages

and this one is a video from Mark Zuckerberg himself on Facebook Changes to expect: http://mashable.com/2010/04/21/zuckerberg-video/

Facebook’s New Ad Targeting Knows What You Read (hubspot.com)
Facebook Ads Will Use Your Web History (mashable.com)
What might Facebook’s new Link to Profiles and Pages mean for Bloggers? (socialmediatoday.com)

© AnnieInfinite for The Bulls Roar, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Business, Facebook, Google, Marketing, Social network, Target market

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What’s Your UBD?

AnnieInfinite — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 01:40:03 +0000

First of all I hear you ask, “What’s a UBD?”

Your UBD is your Unique Business Differentiator and it is the most important thing you can know about your business before marketing it. It is what makes your brand, your business stand out in the crowd.

This is what you will use to establish your brand amongst your competition, it is what will draw your clients and customers to you in preference to other brands, it is how you brand yourself, it belongs in all of your marketing and will be used daily by you, your marketing, and your employees.

So how does a business find, create and establish their UBD?

It all begins with your Vision and Mission statements which are a list of values, goals and outcomes you create for your business. Your vision and mission statements help to keep motivation high, give your business purpose and move you and your business from A to B, effecting growth on a regular basis according to your goals and outcomes.

From these statements you will gain and insight into who your business is, who your target market is, and how to market your business. The next step is to sit down and list your businesses main benefits to your customers and what is different or unique about it.

Questions to ask yourself at this stage:

Who is my main target market?
What is different about my business?
What am I proud of offering?
What am I passionate about?
What core values are most important to me in relation to my business?
What do my current customers/clients say about my business?
What benefits of my business are already important to my prospective and current clients/customers? (This might mean some research on your part)
What are people saying about the biggest or most well-known brands in the same business? (researching what other brands are saying around their own businesses can give you an insight into current trends)
What are the most universal needs of people searching for your niche?

Now create a new list, of words I want associated with my business.

The next step is refinement, take your lists and begin a list of words, values and answers you gave to the questions and prioritise them. Which ones are the most important to you, which ones are already associated with your business by your customers/clients.

Continue to refine this list until you have between 3 and 5 of the most important to you and your customers/clients remembering that your customers and prospects are even more important than you when it comes to your marketing, these are your business’s UBD’s. Once you have this list try coming up with a few different slogans or phrases that encapsulate these UBD’s and these can be your very first branding messages.

Great Job! Now you’re thinking like a marketer!

The Zen Bull

More articles to help you establish your UBD:

http://www.asparker.com/ppts1004.html

http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/p236158609_Finding-out-what-makes-your-business-unique.html

© AnnieInfinite for The Bulls Roar, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Brand, Business, Marketing and Advertising, Small business, Target market

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Review MarketMeTweet – Twitter Branding and Management Tool

AnnieInfinite — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:28:17 +0000

A few posts ago I raved about a new Twitter branding tool called TweetBrand a free little Twitter app put out by the makers of the all new and amazing MarketMe Tweet. This cute little desktop app is able to brand every tweet with your URL and a link back to your site in place of the usual via ?? seen at the bottom of all tweets.

As you can see in the image below it works without taking any space from your character count and as far as I am concerned is a sweet use of Twitter real estate.

How TweetBrand rebrands your Tweets

Now along comes the much awaited MarketMe Tweet taking this tool to a whole new level! After using the original Tweetbrand for a week or so, I emailed the lovely people at MarketMeTweet and asked them if they had plans for a multi-account version and lucky for me the reply was, “Wait until you see what’s coming, you’re going to love it!” They were right!

Now not only does the new MarketMe Tweet brand your tweets it’s a complete Twitter desktop management tool, with plans to keep it updated, relevent and add more features according to users requests – who could ask for more?

Let’s have a look at the most relevent functions of Market Me Tweet:

Multiple Accounts:

MarketMe Tweet allows you to handle multiple accounts right from it’s interface, users must first login using OAuth and then follow the protocols set out in the user help files.

Once it is done you will have the ability to brand any and all of your user accounts right from your desktop. Changing accounts is as easy a choosing from the list you have created, and can be done on the fly as you tweet.

To Setup Your Brand: Go to Step 2 ‘Create Your App’ > Sign in to Twitter account > Go to Brand app > Retrieve the consumer and secret key > Step 3 to fill in fields.

Shrink your links with Bit.ly:

Users can now shrink their links with Bit.ly right from the app via a little button that’s even easier than using my previous favorite Twitter app Seesmic.

Reply Campaigns:

Tracking keywords just became so much easier with MarketMe Tweet, not only you can track multiple keywords at the same time (and filter out unwanted terms for accuracy using ‘Negative Keyword’ option), you can also include reply templates for targeted users.

Once you “Run” a campaign tweets will show up from various users who used that keyword in their tweets.

Once you have found these people you can hover over the keyword in their tweet andthe word “Reply will appear justc lick on this to instantly send the auto-reply you have created to them, picking up another follower based on your niche keywords.

If you have a real distaste for automated Tweets, worry no longer you also have the option to reply live to them, still taking advantage of finding people who are interested in your niche.

No matter what your stance on automation and if or how you use it remember authenticity and being real are key elements for success.

Scheduled Tweets:

I don’t schedule a lot of tweets however it can be useful if you are planning to be away, or to use them for tweeting links out to your followers. I like to on Twitter myself to connect and interact on a very regular basis, but the truth it is, if I am on all day, I cannot hope to get much work done either. So I do automate some of my tweets, some quotes and links are loaded up each morning so that something is going out every couple of hours all day and then when I am having a free moment I connect live and reply to my followers and friends, retweet great posts, answer questions and converse – the most important things you can be doing on sociall media.

That being said this function does save me some time and I love it!

Threaded Conversations:

This is new on Twitter and you don’t miss out on them using MarketMe Tweet right from your desktop – see who you are conversing with and read back the whole conversation via the threads – love this as sometimes it can be a while since I started a conversation and some replies don’t make sense unless I can refresh my memory.

Follow/Unfollow Users:

This is self explanatory but I have to tell you it means I can manage my followers right from my desktop – very useful.

Group Management:

Create groups of people right on MarketMe Tweet, easy to keep up with your favourites, or according to geo-location or niche. Works just like Twitter lists.

Now that we have a full review of the features of this amazing tool, all I can say is the most attractive thing for me is the ability to brand my own and my clients Tweets with a linkable URL. Branding your business and your self online is about making yourself stand out in every situation and making it really, really easy for your audience to find you and come to your site to learn more, to purchase product or to book your services. MarketMeTweet does this in such a way that no matter what you are tweeting, your link is available to your audience every time you tweet.

For a short time only this excellent Twitter Client is available for just $39 for life! and there is an affiliate program that goes with it where you can earn money for recommeding it along to your friends and followers – as far as I am concerned you are doing them a favour!

Review: Love it! Get yours HERE

BREAKING NEWS: MMT now has Twitter List support! and coming soon Mobile support!!

I love that they are continuing to add features like this – thanks Tammy!

The Zen Bull

© AnnieInfinite for The Bulls Roar, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: MarketMeTweet, OAuth, Online Communities, Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter branding

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Using Posterous: Upping the Ante

AnnieInfinite — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:57:19 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

First of all what is Posterous? you might well ask.

Posterous is a blogging platform with a difference! At it’s simplest it is a blogging platform that allows you to post via email. Yes! that’s right via email. Just create your blog post in your email or in word, add your images and post it directly to Posterous. When you do this the first time, it creates your account and once this is done you can login and change the look and feel and add in your auto-posting options (even to your wordpress.com blog) and from then on all you need to do is send more posts. Easy? simple? you bet!

Posterous even allows you to embed MP3′s, videos, audio’s and can turn images into image galleries and slide shows. What more? your PDF’s and word files are displayed as a Scribd embedded widget, so if you wish to avoid this you can send it straight in the email. However this does afford some good qualities, it means you don’t have to re-write all those articles and this means you can post those older reports as blog posts with changing a thing.

Posterous is the blogging platform for those who wish to blog the easy way and is great for beginners. It is also a way for those of us with multiple blogs and social media to aggregate our posting into one place. Yes I know I am going to here screams of “Duplicate Content” however you do have to ask yourself does one aggregator qualify as a downside to “duplicate content’ or does the added benefit of having your content on a site with such a high growth rate outdo the downside?

This is how easy it is:

Post to your social media service. Posterous can automatically spread your post to more than ten sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Tumblr. Click here to learn how. Here’s a list of Posterous email addresses and what they do:

post@posterous.com creates a public post and automatically shares to the social medias services you’ve set up.
private@posterous.com creates a non-public
post.posterous@posterous.com makes a public post that is not automaticallytweeted.
twitter@posterous.com spreads your post only via Twitter.
twitter+facebook@posterous.com spreads your post via Twitter and Facebook.

Post to different Posterous blogs. For example, twitter@jonesfamily.posterous.com will update http://jonesfamily.posterous.com and your Twitter account. The right side of the @ tells Posterous which Posterous site to post to, and the left side of the @ tells Posterous which external sites to update.

Customize the look-and-feel of your site. Posterous now supports customization. Select one of the built-in themes, and customize the colors. Or create your own custom theme. You can even port Tumblr themes to Posterous.

Use a custom domain. By default, Posterous assigns you a domain based on “posterous.com” However, you can change this to a custom domain like Holykaw.com. Click here to learn how.

Post pictures inline. Posterous automatically converts set of photos into a gallery view (where readers click from picture to picture), but if you don’t want a gallery, just put “((nogallery))” in the subject of the email. Posterous will post all the photos individually one after another.

Post from any site. The Posterous bookmarklet lets you quickly grab content out of the page you’re on. You can click and drag to select text and then click “Share on Posterous” in your bookmark bar. Or just click the bookmark without selecting anything and it will auto-detect all large photos, video and media on the page. Click here to learn how.

Create a group site. You can add contributors to your site, and they don’t need to create an account. They simply email post@sitename.posterous.com. All contributors will be notified of new posts and comments by email.

Post using links not embed code. If you want to post a video from Youtube, photo from Flickr, or TV show from Hulu, just send Posterous the URL. There’s no need to copy and paste the embed code. Posterous will take the url you send and convert it into an embedded video automatically.

Add tags. You can add tags to posts by putting them in the title of the email. For example, “((tags: food, New York))” will add those two tags to the post. This also works in the Bookmarklet and iPhone application.

Enable public postings. Turn on “Post by moderation” in your account settings, and anyone can email post@sitename.posterous.com to add something to your site. You just need to approve each post before it goes public. This is a great way to accept user-generated content.

Add a your location. Posterous can automatically add a Google map to your post to show where you took the photo. All you have to do is geotagg your photos..

Don’t include your email signature. Do you have an email signature that you don’t want posted? Either cut it or end your post with “#end” and Posterous won’t publish anything after it.

Posterous: A Cool New Tool for Developing Your Personal Brand (slideshare.net)
Posterous releases directory of themes (pheedcontent.com)

© AnnieInfinite for The Bulls Roar, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Add new tag, Facebook, Flickr, Google, Posterous, Tumblr, Twitter, wordpress.com, YouTube

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Brand Your Tweets with New Tool

AnnieInfinite — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:19:50 +0000

Now this is interesting, I am testing out a new Twitter tool today and I am liking it more and more. TweetBrand is a Twitter App installed via Adobe Air that allows you to brand your Tweets with your own URL – any URL!

You know at the bottom of each Tweet where it says via ? e.g. from Seesmic, from the web, or from Hootsuite now it can say “from your url” and click through to your specified url of choice and it couldn’t be easier to set up with full video and image support and best of all it is free.

Who could ask for any thing more? Try it out today here TweetBrand by Market Me Tweet

How TweetBrand rebrands your Tweets

This takes Twitter branding to a whole new level!

Watch this video for more:

Get this cute little app today – it’s free! TweetBrand by Market Me Tweet

Hint I have it up on my desktop screen all day and use it to Tweet whenever I have an idea – too easy!

The Zen Bull

© AnnieInfinite for The Bulls Roar, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Add new tag, Adobe Air, Online Communities, Social network, Twitter

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Are You a Purple Cow or a Plain Brown One?

AnnieInfinite — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:03:17 +0000

: Cover via Amazon

One of the most influencial marketers for me I have to say is Seth Godin, his approach to marketing is no-nonsense while still being quirky and that so totally appeals to me. His book “Purple Cow” if you haven’t already heard of it is a book I can highly recommend, and it certainly gave me insights into marketing I never got out of a text book.

This one book I credit with changing my whole philosophy of marketing and I believe listening to Seth Godin via his concise yet remarkable blog posts a must for anyone in the marketing industry no matter how big or small your organisation is.

Here’s an exceprt from his book, “Purple Cow’ and what it means to be the purple cow in your industry or niche:

“You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.
What do Starbucks, JetBlue, Krispy Kreme, Apple, Dutch Boy and Hard Candy have that you don’t? How do they continue to confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind former tried-and true brands to gasp their last?

Face it, the checklist of tired ‘P’s marketers have used for decades to get their product noticed – Pricing, Promotion, Publicity, to name a few-aren’t working anymore. There’s an exceptionally important ‘P’ that has to be added to the list. It’s Purple Cow.

Cows, after you’ve seen one, or two, or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though…now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable. Every day, consumers come face to face with a lot of boring stuff-a lot of brown cows-but you can bet they won’t forget a Purple Cow. And it’s not a marketing function that you can slap on to your product or service. Purple Cow is inherent. It’s built right in, or it’s not there. Period.”

Godin writes that you should review all your P’s (product, price, promotion, positioning, etc.) and figure out where your edges (advantages) are and where the competition is located and go where they’re not. Godin uses Jet Blue as an example of getting over the edge of service and pricing. This airline company delivers what none of the competitors possess and manages to make a profit doing it.

Marketers are farmers on the “purple cow farm.” In order to create a cow, a marketer must be involved in the entire process. Godin writes that marketing is the “act of reinventing the product, the effort of designing it, the craft of producing it, the art of pricing it, and the technique of selling it.”

The whole theory of being a purple cow is summed up in this phrase, “the act of building things worth noticing right into your product or service. . . . If what you’re offering isn’t remarkable, it’s invisible.”

Now ask yourself, what’s remarkable about your business? What’s remarkable about you? Those are the things to build on, not fitting in, not making everyone else comfortable with who you are or what you represent – be bold, stand out!

Don’t be a brown cow – get purple-ised!

Now tell me how you’re going to do that in a comment on this post – I would love to hear your purple cow story

The Zen Bull

© AnnieInfinite for The Bulls Roar, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Business, Marketing, Online Marketing, Purple Cow, Seth Godin

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Note to Self: keywords are words used by ordinary people

AnnieInfinite — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:00:17 +0000

: Image by Craig Key via Flickr

I was presenting a workshop on Social Media Marketing the other day and one of the biggest AHA! moments for the group was around how using social media search options and conversation could be a powerful research tool to help refine your site keywords, descriptions and metatags.

As we used the Twitter search tool to find users talking about the search terms (keywords) of some of the group, it became apparent that we can be so entrenched in our own niche we do not see the forest for the trees.

As an example one of our workshop group has a resort in Noosa Heads and he asked to search around one of his keywords “accomodation Noosa”, now as you and I know there is only room for 140 characters in a microblogging update and no-one is going to use them up with a big word like accomodation, they will use: holiday, resort, unit even holiday unit, instead.

This brought on a passionate discussion about how useful social media is as a tool for keyword research. After all, your keywords are search terms most likely to be used by a person searching for your business in a search engine. One of the tips I tell all my website owners about researching their keywords is to go to several of their friends and ask them what words they would use to search for their business. Why? because you can be too close to the industry to know what the average person is saying about your niche or business. You may even mistake the benefits your business provides as your keywords. Big mistake!

Your keywords need to be words used in ordinary (not industry) conversation about your niche, words the average person needed your service or product would use. One of the most invaluable tools to use is: ordinary people not associated with your niche, and that is where social media can be one of the most invaluable tools to use.

Use Twitter Search put in your keywords and see who is talking about your niche (a great way to start your follower list), it is also a great way to see what words are actually being used in conversation about your niche. Go find blogs by people not in the industry and take a look at their blog tags to give you another indicator. Ask your friends on Facebook for clues about how they would search for your business and use the search tool on Facebook in the same way as you did in Twitter Search. This will give you other groups and pages as well as conversations using your keywords and more ideas on what keywords you could be using.

As you must know your keywords need regular review and so this is one area in which your testing never ends: have your site stats gone up or down with this batch of keywords, change them and test again. When you find the perfect mix and your stats rise, only change one or two at a time to see which ones are working well and then test again.

Keywords need to be reviewed at least every 3 months, much more often at first to make sure they are still relevent. Remember when changing keywords on a page to be sure they are relevent to the copy (text) on the page at all times.

The Zen Bull

© AnnieInfinite for The Bulls Roar, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Facebook, keyword, Meta element, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, Web search engine, Website

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Branding You and Your Business Pt.2

AnnieInfinite — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:28:50 +0000

: Image by Nicola photographs……. via Flickr

Carrying on from Part 1, this list will grow in length and intensity according to priority. Be prepared to find some real gems in this list and some things that just might push a button or two.

11. Do good and Make a difference: create brand awareness for doing good in your niche, your community or globally. Host a community event, donate a part of every sale to charity, sponsor a scholarship, change the face of your niche by leading the way. You never know you could end up with television, newspaper headlines and more… plus the feeling of knowing that your organisation has made a difference.

12. Speak up: Get out into your community and speak to groups, associations and give valuable advice, become known for giving great advice not just speaking in generalisations or hinting at an expert tip as so many speakers do. Your company will gain respect as a trusted source of expertise – invaluable!

13. Be unforgettable: create a unique experience for your clients or customers. Do something so unexpected that your customers spread the word (in a good way). Throw in something for free, add in a free glass of champers somewhere unexpected – like when having your windscreen changed or serenade your customers as they wait for their oil change. Create that unforgettable experience and good will and your business name will be spread far and wide.

14. Allow your customers to market for you: Create opportunities for your clients/customers to be a part of your marketing, use video testimonials and let your customers tell the world why you are better than your competition. Play these in store, and on your website – nothing beats the power of genuinely happy customers.

15. Utilise the WOW factor: Push the boundaries (without offending your customers), surprise your customers, get them to think, “WOW that’s gutzy!” Again this uses the power of the unusual to keep your company’s brand on everyones’ lips.

16. Use competitions: give your customer the chance to compete in your arena. I once played a new Playstation game instore and ended up with the highest score of the day and won the game. Everyone else who played also bought the game, and most of the audience did too because of the enjoyment, the spirit of competition and the excitement creating just the right atmosphere that everyone wanted to take that new game home. How can you create the same marketing vibe through a competition in your business?

17. Ask what your customer needs or wants: the simplest way to find out what your customer needs or wants from you is – to ask them. Find out what causes them pain, what lights their candle and create a campaign or product that addresses these issues. Knowing your customer and responding to their needs is vital for establishing a rapport with them that will create a loyal customer base. That way even if your prices go up, your customers will stay and pay just to know that their needs will be met.

18. Add spiritual element to your marketing: Set your organisation apart from the rest by showing your company as caring, heart centred, trustworthy and conscious.

19. Don’t sell!: People never buy products they buy relationships, let people get to know you before pitching to them. Offer your business as a recommendation in response to something in the conversation rather than pitching it up front. In face if you are really game, you can avoid talking about your business altogether until they ask and even then say little and ask instead how you can help your new aquaintence to build their business. Your rep will grow amazingly and everyone will want to do business with you.

20. Be the brand: let you as an individual stand as the brand of your business. When you allow your real authentic self to represent your company, your company never has to hard sell itself. You will never need to advertise, merely market as an aside to standing in your truth and allowing the passion you have for what you do spill over into everything you do and everyone you meet.

Let me know if you can add to this list by commenting below, I would love for these posts to become a real resource for everyone who has ever had a question about branding.

Brand Booster 21 Day 19: Get Out There & Nuture Your Brand (smallbusinessbranding.com)

© AnnieInfinite for The Bulls Roar, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Advertising and Marketing, Brand, Business, Competition, Customer base, Marketing, Website

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Branding You and Your Business – Get Noticed! Pt.1

AnnieInfinite — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:25:52 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

As we all know branding is very important in business, however your brand is not just your logo or company name, it is who you are percieved to be on and offline.

It is the sum total of your identity your company’s identity and your own, you cannot have one without the other. Do you know how your company is percieved? What about yourself, do you know how you are percieved by your clients and customers?

If not find out and if you are not completely happy about your ‘branding’ take steps to change it to one you do want your company and yourself percieved as. This may mean making more effort to figure out exactly what your intended company and personal profile is, what you would like people to be saying about you and your company.

Once you have done that you will be able to use some of this list to -GET NOTICED!

1. Be Unique! – Decide what your company’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is. What is it about your business that differentiates it from all the other businesses in your field? If you haven’t got that figured out you have no basis to begin branding yourself. I have seen some very strange branding in my time (e.g. “The Go Getting Granny”, “The Lazy Entrepreneur”) but even strange branding is better than no branding!
2. Be Yourself! – Please stay yourself, be real, be authentically you in all that you do. Be honest and ethical at all times. Creating trust in you and your brand is more than half the battle when it comes to marketing, if people don’t trust you they will not recommend you and word of mouth marketing is marketings holy grail. Please don’t brand yourself as unethical, dishonest and therefore untrustworthy.
3. Support Your Customers! – A great man once said, “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” -(Zig Ziglar ) You can do this by supporting your customers business, cross marketing with your customers and investing in your customers success. Look for win/win outcomes in your dealings with them.
4. Create a Value Niche! – Get together with others and brain storm ways in which you can create a unique value add to your product or service. Make it something you know everybody needs or wants, find a way to add such value to your selling proposition that it is impossible to say no.
5. Be your Company’s Best Asset! – Do whatever it takes to be your company’s best asset, educate yourself, be outgoing, make sure you connect with your customers personally in some way. Doing this means that your customers feel important to you, get out and do your own presentations, answer questions on social media, be available in some way to your customers. One of the best examples of this is Richard Branson who makes it his mission to shake hands for 20 mintues or so at each of his airports every year and holds parties annually in each major city for members of his airlines frequent flyer clubs.
6. Know what you customers want and need and then give it to them! - Do this whether you have the product or service they need or not. If you cannot personally provide the product or service make sure you and your company become a resource for your customers by forging alliances with firms all around your niche and recommending them and they you, this will pay off in spades!
7. Put the extra in Extraordinary! – Offer a package of products or services out of those that are often purchased together. If needed JV with another company to offer something outstanding that is offered nowhere else. Make your company the most convenient option.
8. Become a Movement! – Turn your company into a movement rather than just another business. We brand ourselves as ‘The Authentreprenuers Resource’ a place where you can educate yourself on authentic marketing and business strategies and ethical hosting and website design. Our mission is to change the face of online marketing and create a new paradigm where authenticity is the new norm and hype a thing of the past We attract everyone who wants authenticity as their bottom line vision for their businesses therefore we are a business that is a movement.
9. Be the Guarantee! – simple and totally effective. You and your company guarantees your guarantee! When you make a promise you and all of your employees do what you said you were going to do and do it when they say they were going to do it.
10. Anticipate your customers needs and wants! – Know what the upcoming trends are and offer them before anyone else. Know what products or services are most often needed together and offer those as a package, know when your clients or customers might need to update, renew or reschedule the product or service and send them a reminder.

Part 1 – part 2 coming soon!

How To Develop a Unique Selling Proposition (digitalprintink.wordpress.com)
Four reasons why new websites flop (woorkup.com)

© AnnieInfinite for The Bulls Roar, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Advertising and Marketing, Business, Internet marketing, Marketing, Richard Branson, Unique Selling Proposition, Website, Word of mouth

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