Marketing Consulting
Social Media ROI & Digital Marketing
A Look Back… and a Look Ahead…
In our industry, it’s easy to look at ways to cut spending, and not plan for lead generation activity, including Social Media. After all, Social Media IS a bit of a mystery isn’t it?
If you go back to the late 1990’s, companies in our industry struggled with cutting spending on traditional media spend, including Yellow Pages. Where were the leads going to come from if we did that? And slowly, we embraced the Internet and forms of email marketing (digital marketing). We did a “little of this, a little of that”. If we really stayed on task, we’d even track customer creation and ROI to these activities (web forms that turned into customers, or email open rates that turned into customers).
5 Stages of Social Media Planning
But even that was time consuming, and certainly not an exact science. Then comes Social Media. What to do now? If you believe that this trend is here to stay (and it is), then you can look to five basic stages of beginning to measure Social Media ROI:
1. The Investment Stage – This is the first necessary step. It’s a great time to really look hard at how you are investing your current media spend, trim the fat and look hard at an investment amount that you can live with. Then, plan the mediums (LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, for example) and execute relentlessly.
2. The Action Stage – This can be the most fun stage. The investment you make, if well thought out, will create a platform for you to engage your audience, offer value and pulls users or visitors into your process. You can start slow and small (a Facebook page, for example) or do all of it at once.
3. The Reaction Stage - This is where the public forms a perception of your efforts, message and company. This may lead to a positive or negative perception. Either way, you need to be ready to handle this and REACT to the feedback you get. A positive reaction will increase the non-financial outcome of a given campaign. This stage is the measurement of brand engagement and digital advocacy.
4. The Non-Financial Impact Stage – This is where you see an increase in likes, comments, fans and followers. How effective was your campaign with the public? How effective was your reaction stage from a brand awareness measurement? Did you have an increase in Twitter followers or “Likes” on your Facebook page? Did you have an increase in email newsletter subscriptions? Things like this can lead up to sales, profit and share gains, the “tangible” stuff we all want to see more of.
5. The Financial Impact Stage - This gets difficult but it IS possible! Did you see an increase in web visits, an increase in email subscribers, web contact forms filled out, leads or credit applications? Did you see an increase during the four previous stages? This may take longer to realize the full return of your investment. Did Twitter actually drive revenue?
While this may sound like a lot of work, it can be. But, not acting on this new medium in a methodical, scheduled way will leave you behind the curve. The train has left the station… are you on it or watching it pull away?
To Your Success…
Steve Smith
Facebook Changes and What It Means to Your Business
Recent Changes to Facebook- What it Means to Your Equipment Business
Question #1 should be… does this mean anything to our business?
I ask this because most equipment companies see Social Media as a waste of time. There is general awareness of it, even a few Fan pages popping up, but how well are they being utilized to drive in and engage prospects? And… what about capturing the leads?
How Recent Changes Impact Your Business
Part of what makes social media so exciting is that it is constantly evolving and changing. While even casual Internet users are aware of the big changes, it’s vital for every marketer tasked with lead generation to pay careful attention to the subtle ones too! Facebook is especially quick at tweaking their platform and the social networking giant recently launched a few new features that are must-knows for anybody leveraging social media for their business.
New Pages Layout
Facebook rolled out a new appearance for Facebook Profiles and company Pages this past month. The most noticeable change was moving the tabs from the top of the Profile or Page and replacing those tabs with a row of pictures. The tabs are now links along the left edge of the Page.
These tweaks were merely aesthetic, but another less noticeable change is that the posts on your wall may now be sorted by “Most Recent” or “Top Posts section to cut back on Spam and general noise on Facebook pages.
From FBML to iframes
Without too much technical jargon, Facebook’s move from requiring designs for custom landing pages to use Facebook’s own mark-up language (FBML) to allowing iframes makes creating these custom pages within Facebook much easier for designers.
iframes are standard HTML tags which allow one page to inserted into another – in this case, Facebook. This means that designers may now create dynamic web applications using standard HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP, Javascript, Flash etc.
Sound technical? It is, but planning for and executing on these strategies will position your company for a solid customer service and lead generation strategy for years to come.
There are some other technical changes I’ll cover in the next post, so look for those as well…
To Your Success…
Steve
Marketing Plan for 2011
Glad that’s OVER!!!… and Welcome Back
Marketing in 2010 was a tough year, along with 2009, and 2008. 2011 is filled with promise, however, but it’s still easy to lose focus on what is important to create and satisfy customers. So this post is dedicated to a quick reminder of things old and new, then the posts are coming at you fast and furious.
We deliberately took a break, focused on building some things (Social Media Services, for example), hell bent on Research and Development on the most important ways to get ranked on page one, create the best first impression and generate leads, leads, and more leads. All that said, the most important things STILL remain:
- Have something good to say: You’ve innovated your business to warrant consideration from an increasingly demanding buying public
- Say it well: In your copy, your website, your Social Media platforms, everything that can potentially create a first impression of your company
- Say it often: If the average prospect needs to see, hear or think about you between 12 and 18 times each year, what is your plan to address this
- Say it to the right prospects: Don’t mindless blast out emails, mailers or create content the wrong way.
Slow down, think about it and do something about it. Plan, execute, don’t get bogged down into too many details. We’ve got over 200 free videos, white papers, checklists and anything you can think of to jump start your meeting. Simply give us a call or drop us a line and we’ll give it away, no questions asked!
To Your Success and a great 2011
Steve Smith
For those free videos, cheap drugs online Marketing Channel” href=”http://www.youtube.com/stevesmith2211″>CLICK HERE
10 Things Jack Welch Would do about Social Media
The GE Way and Social Media
If you know Jack, or of him, once he picked up on some buzz about Social Media, or his “reticular activating system” told him something important was going down, he’d do the following to understand Social Media and the plan for Social Media Management:
1) Get his top line management in the room
2) Ask for some facts… fad or trend… trend = here to stay
3) He’d ask for feedback from well informed management who would proceed to have a meeting “The GE Way”; faces sweaty, veins bulging in the necks, ties askew, but emerge from the meeting online medicine without prescription they would with a plan of action
4) They would have determined the following: They can be #1 or #2 in their market (or their Social Space, in this case)
5) They would have an organized plan, consult with experts, study the competition and execute relentlessly
6) During their research, they would have uncovered case studies and ROI evidence that ran in the 1000% plus range (with a well laid plan). They would be enlightened the ROI with Social Media could be measured with some accuracy
7) They would have assessed where their other ad spend was going, and what their return was and compare it to Social Media
They would be shocked and dismayed to discover that ROI was a bad word their marketing team didn’t understand or, frankly, want to understand
9) They would assess the costs of their sales staff, their productivity and determine that the bottom feeders had to go because Social Media delivered substantially higher rates of return
10) He would demand measurement, because what gets measured, gets managed
And, throughout this process, he’d realize that the margins are so good, he’s wonder why they were making appliances, jet engines and medical devices. But hey, GE serves the world over and does a heck of a job, so they’d stick to their #1 and #2 markets the world over.
For a quick summary of Jack’s book “Winning: His Five Step Approach, click here:
http://equipmentfx.com/assets/Marketing%20Misc/Book%20Review-%20Winning-%20Welch.doc%201997-2003.doc
To Your Success…
Steve Smith
President, EquipmentFX
The Upside of the Downturn: Strategy #13- Get Ready for the Next Downturn… And the One After That
Overview of The Upside of the Downturn- A Must Business Read in Bite Size Pieces
This is one of the great “lemons out of lemonade” business reads that CEO’s, high level positions or anyone tasked with improving a company’s performance should read. It’s also designed for those the KNOW they don’t have all of the answers. It’s not f those that online pharmacy prescription are completely and utterly happy with sales, share, vision and execution.
Part of what we do is to thoroughly understand the detail and GAP between where you are and need to go. To that end, we are providing a short series of posts, objectively recorded for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.
Chapter Summary:
- The Greatest Opportunity & Set of Possibilities
- The New Normal- The Strange Story of How We Got Here
- Reset Priorities- Your Critical First Response to a New Reality
- Protect Your Most Valuable Asset- Your People
- Engage the Outside World- The Nature of Relationships are Changing
- Reexamine Your Strategy & Business Model
- Manage for Value- Most Companies Don’t
- Create New Solutions for Customers New Problems
- Price With Courage- Don’t Assume You Have to Mark Down
- Get Fitter Faster- The Right Kind of Operational Discipline Pays Off
1) For Next Time- Get ready for the expansion to come- and for the recession after that
- The landscape of possibilities is broad; think of them in distinct categories
- Engage the outside world: extend yourself, reach out to others
- Managing people: remain rigorous on all aspects of people management
- Adjust strategy and business model: build in flexibility
- Stay connected with customers: keep understanding needs, refine value propositions
- Manage capital: re-evaluate your strategy, risk and investment mentality
- Get more efficient and productive: focus on everything
- Adapting to changing risks: find new sources, new voices, shift your paradigm
- Continue to grow personally: see this as a historic opportunity to refine your business
What EquipmentFX does About This
We perform a rigorous assessment of your entire marketing efforts, your position, your plan and provide you with completely objective, unbiased feedback with a specific plan on what to do with the recommendations.
We’ll be happy to send you a few demo videos to our assessment, output reports and online plan.
To Your Success…
The Upside of the Downturn: Strategy #12 Don’t Forget to Grow Yourself
Overview of The Upside of the Downturn- A Must Business Read in Bite Size Pieces
This is one of the great “lemons out of lemonade” business reads that CEO’s, high level positions or anyone tasked with improving a company’s performance should read. It’s also designed for those the KNOW they don’t have all of the answers. It’s not f those that are completely and utterly happy with sales, share, vision and execution.
Part of what we do is to thoroughly understand the detail and GAP between where you are and need to go. To that end, we are providing a short series of posts, objectively recorded for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.
Chapter Summary:
- The Greatest Opportunity & Set of Possibilities
- The New Normal- The Strange Story of How We Got Here
- Reset Priorities- Your Critical First Response to a New Reality
- Protect Your Most Valuable Asset- Your People
- Engage the Outside World- The Nature of Relationships are Changing
- Reexamine Your Strategy & Business Model
- Manage for Value- Most Companies Don’t
- Create New Solutions for Customers New Problems
- Price With buying medicine online Courage- Don’t Assume You Have to Mark Down
- Get Fitter Faster- The Right Kind of Operational Discipline Pays Off
1) Don’t Forget to Grow Yourself- Why this downturn is a unique opportunity for self development
- This has changed your people and will force them to stretch in new ways no one ever imagined
- Use the crisis to become a better leader
- i. Stand up and be seen
- ii. Be calm and in control
- iii. Be decisive
- iv. Show fearlessness
- v. Explain the crisis in larger context
- Now is the time to build all abilities; average performers can become great performers when they are continually being pushed
- Build the culture, improve the tools of open collaboration, do it right now!
What EquipmentFX does About This
We perform a rigorous assessment of your entire marketing efforts, your position, your plan and provide you with completely objective, unbiased feedback with a specific plan on what to do with the recommendations.
We’ll be happy to send you a few demo videos to our assessment, output reports and online plan.
To Your Success…
The Upside of the Downturn: Strategy #11- Understand All Your Risks- Seize the Moment
Overview of The Upside of the Downturn- A Must Business Read in Bite Size Pieces
This is one of the great “lemons out of lemonade” business reads that CEO’s, high level positions or anyone tasked with improving a company’s performance should read. It’s also designed for those the KNOW they don’t have all of the answers. It’s not f those that are completely and utterly happy with sales, share, vision and execution.
Part of what we do is to thoroughly understand the detail and GAP between where you are and need to go. To that end, we are providing a short series of posts, objectively recorded for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.
Chapter Summary:
- The Greatest Opportunity & Set of Possibilities
- The New Normal- The Strange Story of How We Got Here
- Reset Priorities- Your Critical First Response to a New Reality
- Protect Your Most Valuable Asset- Your People
- Engage the Outside World- The Nature of Relationships are Changing
- Reexamine Your Strategy & Business Model
- Manage for Value- Most Companies Don’t
- Create New Solutions for Customers New Problems
- Price With Courage- Don’t Assume You Have to Mark Down
- Get Fitter Faster- The Right Kind of Operational Discipline Pays Off
1) Understand All Your Risks- Seize this moment to take a broader view of what might go wrong in your business
- Most businesses give themselves high marks for being prepared for a crisis, but were proven wrong during this recession.
- See the risks you never imagined, turbocharge your imagination, creation of “risk committees”
- Two reasons to re-imagine dangers: 1) Scale of global recession reminds us how connected we are to the variables, 2) We can look back and identify voices that were pointing out the impending crisis, and find new voices of reason going forward
- Imagining sequences, it’s never just one event. Build scenarios of what can happen.
- Think in probabilities, realizing their limitations, use the power of markets (prediction)
- Create an organization and culture that adapts quickly to new realities
What EquipmentFX does About This
We perform a rigorous assessment of your entire marketing efforts, your position, your plan and provide you with completely objective, unbiased feedback with a specific plan on what to do with the recommendations.
We’ll be happy to send you a few demo videos to our assessment, output reports and online plan.
To Your Success…
The Upside of the Downturn: Strategy #10- Get Fitter Faster
Overview of The Upside of the Downturn- A Must Business Read in Bite Size Pieces
This is one of the great “lemons out of lemonade” business reads that CEO’s, high level positions or anyone tasked with improving a company’s performance should read. It’s also designed for those the KNOW they don’t have all of the answers. It’s not f those that are completely and utterly happy with sales, share, vision and execution.
Part of what we do is to thoroughly understand the detail and GAP between where you are and need to go. To that end, we are providing a short series of posts, objectively recorded for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.
Chapter Summary:
- The Greatest Opportunity & Set of Possibilities
- The New Normal- The Strange Story of How We Got Here
- Reset Priorities- Your Critical First Response to a New Reality
- Protect Your Most Valuable Asset- Your People
- Engage the Outside World- The Nature of Relationships are Changing
- Reexamine Your Strategy & Business Model
- Manage for Value- Most Companies Don’t
- Create New Solutions for Customers New Problems
- Price With Courage- Don’t Assume You Have to Mark Down
- Get Fitter Faster- The Right Kind of Operational Discipline Pays Off
1) Get Fitter Faster- The right kind of operational discipline pays off powerfully in a recession
- Understand the new economic profitability of all your business segments
- Look at your world through a “green lens”: cost saving opportunities, marketing leverage, good impressions of your company
- Think twice before cutting the easy expenses: R & D, advertising, entertainment, do a thorough investment analysis of long term effect
- Take good risks and stay the course: top performers increase investment to promote their business during bad times
- Research is clear: the most successful companies play offense, not defense, during a recession and see the opportunities to build competitive advantages
- Ask: “What would we do if we had to sell this business?
- Focus intensely on a few clear goals, identify KPI’s, stick with the measurements that matter
- Ask the employees where the opportunities are, they have most of the answers
- “The Discipline of Market Leaders” classic read, every company can focus only on one of three key things: order drugs online 1) Operational excellence, 2) Product leadership, 3) Customer intimacy
What EquipmentFX does About This
We perform a rigorous assessment of your entire marketing efforts, your position, your plan and provide you with completely objective, unbiased feedback with a specific plan on what to do with the recommendations.
We’ll be happy to send you a few demo videos to our assessment, output reports and online plan.
To Your Success…
The Upside of the Downturn: Strategy #9- Price With Courage
Overview of The Upside of the Downturn- A Must Business Read in Bite Size Pieces
This is one of the great “lemons out of lemonade” business reads that CEO’s, high level positions or anyone tasked with improving a company’s performance should read. It’s also designed for those the KNOW they don’t have all of the answers. It’s not f those that are completely and utterly happy with sales, share, vision and execution.
Part of what we do is to thoroughly understand the detail and GAP between where you are and need to go. To that end, we are providing a short series of posts, objectively recorded for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.
Chapter Summary:
- The Greatest offshore pharmacies Opportunity & Set of Possibilities
- The New Normal- The Strange Story of How We Got Here
- Reset Priorities- Your Critical First Response to a New Reality
- Protect Your Most Valuable Asset- Your People
- Engage the Outside World- The Nature of Relationships are Changing
- Reexamine Your Strategy & Business Model
- Manage for Value- Most Companies Don’t
- Create New Solutions for Customers New Problems
- Price With Courage- Don’t Assume You Have to Mark Down
- Get Fitter Faster- The Right Kind of Operational Discipline Pays Off
1) Price with Courage- Don’t assume you have to mark down- it’s riskier than you may think
- Price cuts rarely pay for themselves: simple math means cut prices by 20%, sell 25 more units just to maintain revenue
- Price cuts destroy brand equity that took years to build and will take years to restore
- Price cuts train customers to behave badly
- Customers hate price increases more than they like price cuts
- Practical strategy and case studies on how to handle objections, easily applied to our industry
What EquipmentFX does About This
We perform a rigorous assessment of your entire marketing efforts, your position, your plan and provide you with completely objective, unbiased feedback with a specific plan on what to do with the recommendations.
We’ll be happy to send you a few demo videos to our assessment, output reports and online plan.
To Your Success…
The Upside of the Downturn: Strategy #8- Create New Solutions for Customers’ New Problems
Overview of The Upside of the Downturn- A Must Business Read in Bite Size Pieces
This is one online prescription medications of the great “lemons out of lemonade” business reads that CEO’s, high level positions or anyone tasked with improving a company’s performance should read. It’s also designed for those the KNOW they don’t have all of the answers. It’s not f those that are completely and utterly happy with sales, share, vision and execution.
Part of what we do is to thoroughly understand the detail and GAP between where you are and need to go. To that end, we are providing a short series of posts, objectively recorded for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.
Chapter Summary:
- The Greatest Opportunity & Set of Possibilities
- The New Normal- The Strange Story of How We Got Here
- Reset Priorities- Your Critical First Response to a New Reality
- Protect Your Most Valuable Asset- Your People
- Engage the Outside World- The Nature of Relationships are Changing
- Reexamine Your Strategy & Business Model
- Manage for Value- Most Companies Don’t
- Create New Solutions for Customers New Problems
- Price With Courage- Don’t Assume You Have to Mark Down
- Get Fitter Faster- The Right Kind of Operational Discipline Pays Off
1) Create New Solutions for Customers’ New Problems- You can do it in more ways than you may realize
- Never stop experimenting, create a unique customer experience, price is only one variable in the whole equation
- Through good and bad, good companies create complete experiences
- Create different value propositions for different customers, or customer segments
- Getting creative in meeting new needs, give customers more control over the options
What EquipmentFX does About This
We perform a rigorous assessment of your entire marketing efforts, your position, your plan and provide you with completely objective, unbiased feedback with a specific plan on what to do with the recommendations.
We’ll be happy to send you a few demo videos to our assessment, output reports and online plan.
To Your Success…
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