Marketing BEEP

Top Three Tips for Effective Twitter Marketing

A marketing campaign can make or break a business. Thankfully, there are various techniques that companies of today can use to promote their brand and ensure marketing success. One such technique is social networking through websites such as Twitter.

Marketing through Twitter provides companies new opportunities to reach people without spending anything at all. If it is only now that you are considering those opportunities, here are ways to maximize Twitter for your business. 

1. Tweet regularly

Posting on Twitter or “tweeting” as often as possible can help you establish your brand's online presence. When you tweet daily or even several times a day, Twitter users in your network (or “followers”) can see how invested you are in communicating with them and this can lead to meaningful interactions.

2. Post valuable content

When it comes to Twitter marketing, quality is as important as quantity. The point of this strategy is to have more people read your tweets and compel them to click on your links or “retweet” you. You can do this by adding value to your tweets and making them as less commercial as possible. Do not pressure yourself to make a sale right away, Twitter is not the place for that. Instead, do your best to establish your credibility by tweeting in a manner that matches the identity you want to create for your brand. Share funny or wise tweets, for example. These type of tweets are more likely to be retweeted, thus allowing your content and your name to reach a wider audience. 

3. Interact with your audience

While it is important to be mindful of how you tweet, reading other people's tweets is a great idea as well. Make sure to respond accordingly to your followers as often as possible. This will assure them that you are actually reading their posts and you are interested in what they have to say – be it positive or negative feedback. Communication is an important tool in business marketing so it only makes sense to apply this principle to your Twitter marketing efforts.

 

 

 

Grow Your Business By Going Local

Thinking big is natural for any business owners. However, you’ll be surprised that one of the easiest ways to success is by going local. When you think about it, there are always opportunities to be found in your own backyard.

Reaching out to local markets can take a bit of initiative, resourcefulness, and determination. Below are some of the ways of how to take advantage of your local community in growing your business:

• Even if your business is geared towards a global audience, there are still many opportunities available for you locally. Reach out to your peers and establish a network of support with them through local trade associations, networking groups, online communities, etc. This is a nice way to get business ideas and useful advice. You can also participate in existing business events to establish your presence in the area. The visibility you gain will help you attract your target customers and build a strong community.
• If you already have a broad network of contacts, yet managing the day-to-day operation of your business has caused you to lose touch with them, get back into the practice of reaching out to your peers. Consider scheduling a coffee date, sending out newsletters or simply picking up the phone to call and check in. In business, having the most number of friends does not always guarantee success; what matters most is the value you put into your relationships.
• Refresh your professional identity to improve brand awareness – both online and offline. Aside from stepping up your offline marketing game, consider updating your website with a fresh design and give your logo a makeover, if necessary. When people search the Internet for products and services, most of the time they are looking for local providers. Or they research online about the merchandise – its price and features – before buying it offline. So focusing your sights locally doesn’t necessarily mean that you should abandon your online marketing efforts altogether. It means that you are just extending your reach to a huge audience.

 

Three Things to Consider in Creating Brochure Headlines

In general, the first thing that people see in a brochure is the cover. If the cover fails to convince them to open up the material, then you have literally lost the battle. These days, you simply can’t afford to waste your resources and efforts in an unsuccessful brochure campaign. Putting a lot of thought into the cover must be one of your priorities in creating your brochures.

The brochure cover contains the headline along with some images or graphics that must be appealing to the target readers. These elements must go together perfectly in order to achieve your goal of attracting attention. The images should be interesting enough to support the headline, which then must do its job of convincing the audience to read the rest of the brochure.

 Indeed, the headline is a very crucial part of every marketing brochure. To be effective in writing one, remember the following objectives:

• Target the right audience. Remember that you are selling products or services that aim to solve the problems or needs of a particular market segment. The headline must speak to your prospects – use appropriate words and avoid lingos that are not relatable to them.
• Grab attention. There are different ways to do this. One is to ask a thought-provoking question. Another effective way is to promise your prospects the benefits they will get from your offer.
• Encourage the reader to keep reading. Your headline must be interesting enough to motivate your targets to open the brochure and read what’s in store for them inside. Make sure the to answer the first question your reader will have in mind: What's in it for me?

 Ultimately, make your brochure headlines short and direct to the point. In addition, don’t mislead your prospects with false promises. You wouldn’t want to turn off or lose the trust of your target market with such cheap and unprofessional strategy. 

 

Why Blogging Is Important to Small Businesses

Blogging has been known as a way to share one’s thoughts about certain issues – personal or otherwise - although it seems like social networking sites are now the preferred venues for such purpose. Nevertheless, if you are a small business owner who wants to promote online, there are reasons why you should be blogging more, instead of focusing your energies solely on tweeting or updating your Facebook page status.

• Blogging is crucial to your search engine optimization activities. When you blog, whether through a free blogging platform or using the one incorporated into your website, you have a good chance of getting extra visibility in search engine results. According to studies, a large percentage of consumers are now using search engines to look for information about local companies. That is one great motivation to boost your online search presence. Just make sure that you have relevant keywords in your posts to get good rankings and bring in readers to your site.

• Blogging can help build your reputation. Potential customers oftentimes gauge a company’s reputation by what they read online. So instead of reading about your business elsewhere, why not offer them information straight from the source? Blogging provides you with an opportunity to establish your reputation and influence people’s impression of your professional identity.

• Blogging can establish your authority. You can maximize your blog better if you will write less about your product/service but more about relevant information or your expert knowledge. This way, you are not only providing more value to your readers, but also showing that you are a reliable authority in your field.

 

If you haven’t tried blogging yet, now is the time to get started. Once you do, don’t forget to tell people about it. Include the blog’s URL in your business cards, for example. Spread the word. Your blog is something worth sharing about in Facebook or Twitter.

Offline Strategies to Promote Your Online Business

Web entrepreneurs can do more in promoting their businesses than rely exclusively on online methods. Old school techniques like print advertising, direct mailing, brochure marketing, flyer distribution, etc. are still known to deliver favorable results. If you want to reach a wider audience and increase your web traffic, you may want to be a bit more traditional and try these offline strategies.

Below are several traditional offline tools that you can use to promote your online venture:

Business Cards – Always keep a few handy whenever you go out to attend business meetings, seminars, trade shows and other relevant events. Whenever the opportunity comes, do not forget to hand them out. Make sure to design your business cards well to make them look memorable and impressive. Aside from listing your name and contact number, remember to include the URL of your online store as well as your email address.

Coupons and Gift Certificates– These items are valuable incentives that your prospects will surely find tempting. Marketing strategies that involve coupons and gift certificates are also simple to implement and track, which means you can easily determine whether the campaign is working or not. Having the coupons redeemable through your site is also a good idea to increase web traffic.

Promotional Items – Since they are functional, caps, pens, t-shirts, etc. can be as useful as brochures and flyers in advertising a business. . Simply print your business name and URL address on the items and give them to as many people as possible. They are especially effective if you are reaching out to a local community

Postcards – If you are going to take advantage of direct mailing, then do it with postcards. These printed items are cost-effective and versatile – you can use these to announce your latest offerings or special deals or promote an upcoming business event. Of course, don’t forget to announce your website while you’re at it.

Offline advertising can still be as effective as it was – before email, podcasting, social media and other web innovations became all the rage in business marketing. This is not saying that you should focus all your resources towards traditional forms of advertising. What you may choose to do is arrive at a compromise – by supplementing your online efforts with offline strategies.