by tradesmeninsights | Mar 30, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
We’re all seeing more and more of these strange looking square boxes (2D codes) in ads and on billboards and packaging that connect people to mobile sites for more info.
According to 3GVision, a global pioneer and leader in mobile barcode solutions and advanced image processing technologies to fast-track consumers to the mobile Internet, the USA is leading for the first time in terms of absolute numbers of scans.
Top 10 users of mobile barcodes during Q4/2010:
1. (2) United States
2. (1) Italy
3. (3) Germany
4. (10) Hong Kong
5. (7) France
6. (15) Canada
7. (5) United Kingdom
8. (6) Netherlands
9. (4) Thailand
10. (11) South Korea
( ) – Position in Q3/2010
From Quarter 4 of 2009 to Quarter 4 of 2010, there was a +400% increase in mobile barcode scans.
Bottom line is, 2D bar codes are here and they are not going away. What are you doing to capitalize on them?
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by tradesmeninsights | Mar 29, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Twitter
Twitter is an under-utilized tool that businesses should be using more.
There are well over a hundred different Twitter tools that have been developed. Recently Michael Gass, my social media mentor, came up with a helpful list.
Below are his top 5 tools that he uses for new business that will help you create an online community of your best prospective clients. Each makes Twitter a more powerful marketing tool for your online new business efforts.
TweetBeep
This tool is like Google Alerts for Twitter! Put in a keyword or website, and get emails when others tweet it! Keep track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company, anything! You can even keep track of who’s tweeting your website or blog.
TweetScan
You can search public messages and user profiles with results available via email, RSS, JSON, and Twhirl. You can even download your own personal Twitter archive!
TweetLater (now called SocialOomph)
Keep your Twitter stream ticking over with new tweets even when you’re not in front of your computer. Publish tweets when your international followers are online and you’re asleep. Send automated thank you notes to new followers, and automatically follow new followers, if you choose to do so.
Splitweet
Easy management for multi Twitter accounts and brand monitor. Splitweet allows the Twitter users to compose a list of accounts and distribute their tweets, choosing their release in one or more of their accounts. You can also follow your contacts’ tweets from all of your managed accounts in Splitweet. And you can easily monitor your brand(s).
Tweeter Karma
Basically, this is a Flash application that fetches your friends and followers from Twitter when you click the “Whack!” button, then displays them for you, letting you quickly paginate through them. By default, the list contains all your friends and followers and is sorted by last update, showing those who most recently updated first. You can sort the list alphabetically either ascending or descending by Twitter ID. You can filter the list in several ways: only friends or only followers, all friends or all followers, and mutual friends.
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 24, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Online media is the fastest growing media platform in history. Second only to Google, YouTube has emerged as an easy-to-use search tool.
As a manufacturer, are you capitalizing on this powerful tool to disperse your message? You don’t need a “Hollywood” production. As a matter of a fact, the ones done on a mobile phone would do just fine. We’ve done “man on the street” interviews with contractors at will-call counters and on jobsites asking their opinions on tools and other products.
Did you know – Videos convey more info per minute than any other media and 65% of the public like to learn via videos.
These were only a few of the facts that I learned from a recent post by Jon Miller from Marketo. His post, How to Optimize Your B2B Marketing and Sales with Online Video outlines how to use videos to engage prospects in different stages of the buying cycle.
According to a Universal McCann study cited by Brightcove, people find product information and research most compelling when delivered in video format. MarketingSherpa claims that online video is a close second to word-of-mouth communication when it comes to influencing key decisions. No other media channel communicates a deeper, richer message or leaves a more lasting impression than video.
He also offers 10 online video strategies you may find helpful. Here are some highlights:
- Search optimize your video with a text summary – Use key words to highlight main points and make sure you include the URL.
- Integrate video into your e-mail marketing programs – Deliver relevant info pertinent to who they are and where they are in the buying process.
- Leverage social media – Promote across all marketing channels including your blog and both personal and business profiles.
- Feature on you website – Embed videos where appropriate to promote products, company news or new product promotions.
What are you doing to capitalize on your videos?
If you liked this post, you might also like:
Busy Executives Prefer Video on Web.
Make Video Part of your Direct Marketing Plans to the Professional Tradesmen.
Online Video Marketing: A Great Way to Educate the Professional Tradesman.
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 23, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
If you’re active on Twitter, you probably have gotten a “thanks for the RT.” Saying “thank you” helps build brand loyalty and brings a conversational aspect to your tweets. We all struggle on what’s the correct etiquette for thanking someone on Twitter. Do you always have to say thanks? Are there other ways to show your gratitude?
Angie Schottmuller from Interactive Artisan recently did a guest post on Jay Baer’s Convince and Covert that was right on target with helpful do’s and don’ts regarding etiquette. Here are some highlights:
DO’s
- Follow the user – Review their profile and if they are a good fit, follow them.
- Reciprocate – Scan their tweets and see if one is applicable for you to RT.
- Retweet a Retweet – This is a good way to recognize the user and put quality content back into the stream.
- Conversational Mention – Reply with a conversational response about the post to get a discussion going.
DON’Ts
- Don’t put numerous RT’s back-to-back.
- Avoid peak content hours.
- Don’t put out a generic thanks. Always include a hashtag.
If you like this post, you might like:
7 Ways to Use Twitter to Generate Traffic and Leads.
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 22, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
If you’re into social media, you’re doing it with a purpose in mind. You have a story to tell and you want to tell it to a certain type of person. This holds true no matter what type of marketing you’re doing (traditional or social).
But when you’re developing your content, do you ever consider at what stage your reader is at in the buying cycle? By segmenting your content to include all stages of a buying process (awareness, consideration, evaluation and purchase), you’ll be sure to hit all your potentials at their stage in the buying process.
I recently read a post from AdamHolden-Bach from Mass Transmit called Using Content Marketing to Understand Your B2B Audience that I thought was spot on.
Here are some highlights on segmenting your markets:
- Awareness – These folks have just begun the process. Provide educational content (blogs, white papers, webinars) and make it easy for them to receive it (do make them register to get it).
- Consideration – Once they know about you they want to know how you stack up against the competition. Provide them product comparisons, case studies or other material that shows why your product is better.
- Evaluation – They want to understand the solutions you provide and how they would benefit their business.
- Purchase – Use social channels to broadcast new products, upgrades, special offers to help incentivize the customer.
As you’re creating content, identify which stage it falls into. Use tracking methods over time, for instance to gauge interest and tell you at what stage most of your audience is at in the sales cycle.
What are you doing to segment your marketing?
If you liked this post, you may also like:
2011 Trends: Content Marketing is Critical for Social Media Success
2011 Trends for B-to-B Bloggers
by tradesmeninsights | Mar 16, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
You need to know, like and trust someone before you’ll recommend them, right?
That holds true not only in our day-to-day interactions (human), as well as our relationships online. Social media has put the power in the hands of the consumer and is rapidly closing the gap with word of mouth.
A recent post on eMarketer.com was highlighting a recent study by Global WebIndex “Annual Report 2011” that outlines the shift in behavior regading social media. Highlights include that usage of social sites are shifting from creating content to distributing it.
The human element remains key when it comes to trust. An example is users worldwide reported nearly a 50% increase in their trust for social network contacts.
So what does this mean for you and me? It means people who know, like and trust us, whether it’s in person or on a social site, are more likely to listen to a recommendation from you. Pretty neat if you ask me, and it reinforces what lots of people are saying about starting to build relationships on the social platform.
So what are you doing to build that trust so people are asking you for recommendations?
