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Natural Marketing Services, LLC - Atlanta, GA
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| Are Social Media, Short Attention Spans and The Plethora of Marketing Choices Making You Crazy? |
- Associations/Networking – referral/lead generation groups, trade associations, community and civic groups, social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn)
- Advertising - print, radio, TV, billboard, web, pay-per-click, sponsorships, directories, video commercials, audio commercials, graphical ads
- Prospect Lists/Databases – prospect data for the purpose of calling, mailing and developing new relationships, processes and systems for capturing and sorting prospect, client and partner data
- Grassroots Marketing/Sales – building personal relationships with prospects, and converting them to customers and loyal referring partners, multi-channel drip campaigns, including telephone, in-person visits, email and other communication
- Writing/Speaking - internal publishing, external publishing/dissemination of printed words, audio and video – DIGG, HARO, partner newsletters, magazines and trade journals, YouTube for video presentations, others’ Blogs, Wikipedia
- Hosting Events – in-person events, teleconferences, web conferences – things you create and host
- Outside Events – trade shows, fairs, online collaboration events – things others host that you attend as a participant
Obviously some areas overlap, as well as their applications, however this will give you a sense of what categories all those social media applications can be used FOR.
If you know that personal sales and networking are effective strategies for your business, then go deeper by leveraging the social networks, such as LinkedIn. If you enjoy writing or speaking, and find that those channels are good avenues to demonstrate your expertise, then go further by getting articles published in outside electronic or print publications. Leverage “Help a Reporter Out,” DIGG, or your partners’ newsletters and Blogs. Post your speaking videos on YouTube or partner sites, and pursue outside speaking engagements.
Stay tuned for part 2 where we will discuss in more detail how to determine and get focused on what works for your particular business.
If you are interested in scheduling a low-cost marketing strategy session to jump-start your business, call Bernadette at 678.643.3899.
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How did we get here in the first place?
Once upon a time, there was business. And business required sales & marketing to get customers. Sales were people and marketing was a brochure. It was simple. And it was good.
Then came the age of technology. Brochures became websites. Postal mailers morphed into emails. Sales people had to learn and use technology. And it was uncomfortable for a while, but it was still good.
Then came spam, blogging, social networking, video, twitter, texting, short attention spans and chaos. And business owners said, “I am old, and tired, and can’t keep up.” And it was frustrating.
Gone are the days of those 4 simple communication channels: web, mail, telephone and in-person.
So how do you know what to participate in? Or even begin to learn? Do you hire young bucks to figure all this out or do you create a social media department within your marketing efforts?
Nope, I don’t think so.
Here’s why. Remember back to 2000-2004 – email marketing was huge. You could even rent good email lists back then. New businesses were launched with the sole purpose of brokering email lists, creating HTML emails and serving up email distribution and fulfillment. Print and personal communications were going to be replaced in short order. But did that happen? No.
Sure, businesses print less and have reduced their postal mail communications, but it hasn’t completely stopped.
I remember discussions at my old firm around whether email was the ultimate marketing channel and arguments that multi-channel approaches were still the key to successful marketing. Ultimately we always believed that multi-channel approaches were best, and that email would never be a company’s entire marketing strategy.
Then what of email? SPAM and the lack of good regulatory enforcement has muddied the email waters, preventing us from reaching many of our own customers, and the prospects we seek. I think this was a key factor leading to the fragmentation of marketing communications, and a lot of the social media sites we see today.
So what’s the solution to being a successful business in this marketplace? I believe it starts with understanding what these communication channels really are, and then integrating them into your marketing programs.
Here are the areas we focus on when working on marketing strategy sessions with our clients and what they include. Take note of the things society typically lumps together as “social media” and notice how they actually fit into traditional marketing segment categories :
- Branding - logo development, brand positioning, company name, tagline, value proposition, messaging
- Web – Website, Web Applications
- Electronic Bulk Communication - email, e-newsletters, Blog, Microblog (Twitter)
- Collateral Materials - (electronic or print) brochures, signage, presentations, business cards, one-sheets, exhibit graphics, video, etc.
- Public Relations/Publicity – Media relations, press releases, cause-related marketing, community relations, philanthropic involvement
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