The Importance of Marketing Your Business

by Debbie Burgin - 

I recently did some research on the current marketing strategy/systems of a local company. What I found wasn’t what I’d call ‘disturbing’ per se, but it totally made me scratch my head.

In perusing their current social media accounts, I found what some might call ‘bare bones’ posts on both Twitter AND Instagram. By ‘bare bones’ I mean, only the information that a ‘layman’ might convey was there. So the simplest tools that someone who works in the marketing arena would use, weren’t being implemented.

In addition, on the company website, I there were some MAJOR red flags; things that one working in marketing would immediately notice, but more importantly, site visitors, would NOT. Meaning that those things that you want your site visitors to notice were not present on this website…AT ALL.

There was no way to provide content to bring in new customers, nor to bring current customers back to the business/website.

There was also no noticeable way to capture visitor information (if I didn’t go looking for it, I never would have seen it), etc. And when I did find it, it was tucked away in a corner of the company website.

Third red flag; the company’s current marketing strategy was simply concerned with marketing of their own product/service. There were no ‘niche’ extensions, meaning that anything else that their company could/would ‘touch’ wasn’t included in the sparse marketing that they were doing.

When we spoke, it sounded as though they were more concerned with the ‘design’ of their website (which was good) than anything else.

Now…don’t misunderstand me; this isn’t a small company.

I cringe thinking about it.

If you haven’t implemented ways to get prospective customers to your website, why are you so concerned about what it looks like? Worse, if a prospective customer ‘trips’ over your website by accident, there’s no way to get them to come back.

Shame.

There are approximately 140,000 new sites being added to the web each and every month. If you don’t create ways to bring new customers to your website/business, guess what? It’s highly likely that your potential customer isn’t going to have a clue that you and your business even exist. You know where those customers will go? They’ll go to the website of a business who provides them with the information that they’re looking for, either by way of content that brings them to the site (or some extension of the site, like a blog), or by reaching out with that information (email via newsletter, etc.).

So what's my point? 

Some companies let their marketing 'fall by the wayside', thinking that what matters is current projects/customers. But how do you think those customers will find you? The internet is an incredible marketing vehicle when used to even a fraction of it's potential.

Don’t let your new customers go to your competition, simply because you failed to see your business/website through their eyes.

How Do I Use Hashtags for my Business Marketing?

by Debbie Burgin - 

As someone who works in the marketing space (digital and otherwise), I've managed to get used to the fact that things change on a near hourly basis. What worked even six months ago, has succumbed to a quick and painless death, to be replaced by some other thing/fad/trick that'll be completely outdated six months from now. It's a never ending battle. 

In the social media space, platforms come and go; the demise of vehicles like Myspace and ICQ (for messaging) have made room for what we now know as Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat, Pinterest, and the Granddaddy of social media, Facebook. 

Each of the aforementioned platforms has it's own specific purpose, whether that purpose is to share photos of your great backyard garden, or to share information about your company's newest product or service. 

Regardless of which social media vehicle you choose to use, the whole point of use is to get as many 'followers' as you can. Because the more followers you have, the more people who will see what you share through those accounts. 

But how do you get more followers? 

When I'm doing an 'audit' of a potential client's website and/or digital marketing/social media capabilities, one of the first things I look at is whether or not their social media accounts are utilizing the simplest of 'tools'. I look for tools that facilitate growth of an account, and one of the best growth tools for social media is the hashtag. 

What is a hashtag, you ask? 

Simply put, a "hashtag" is a way of grouping together similar topics for the purpose of search on a particular platform.The hashtag is the "#" placed immediately before any word or short phrase. Clicking on the word or phrase that is preceded by the "#" should pull up every other post that contains that word or phrase, even if that post is a photo (or includes a photo). 

When I'm doing a social media audit for a potential client, it's always obvious whether or not they actually grasp the purpose of the hashtag, if they're even aware of its existence at all. Sometimes they'll throw one into a post almost as an afterthought, and in those cases, the tag is usually something that's one of two things; almost completely irrelevant, or it's alone, meaning that even if it's relevant to the post itself, potential followers would have an incredibly tough time finding it without another (more universal) tag to 'anchor' it. For instance, creating a hashtag of your company name is useless without including an 'anchor' tag, such as what it is that your company actually does, ie: a tag like #ABCInteriors is almost useless without something like #interiordesign, or #interiordesigner etc. to back it up.

Does that make sense? 

A hashtag should be something that not only people who're already familiar with your products or services will search for. Including hashtags in your posts, whether for Twitter or Instagram, etc., can much more quickly grow your follower count with those who're actually interested in what you have to share. 

Questions? Don't be shy! Feel free to ask! 

Peace :)

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*Feel free to repost this article to your blog or website, but in doing so, you must also include this portion: 

Debbie Burgin is a marketing specialist to small and not-so-small businesses alike. For Rock Star business marketing tips, hop over to her blog at venturedigitalmarketing.net. 

Marketing Automation; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

by Debbie Burgin

I had a conversation with a client this morning that triggered this piece.

To his credit, he is what I call an ‘atypical’ client, in that he fully understands both the power of social media, and how much WORK one has to put in to gain any kind of traction in this marketing space.

Until you’ve done it, you don’t get it, and he’s done it.

On more than a few occasions, I’ve heard small business owners complain about the cost of hiring someone to strategize, build and run the chunk of their marketing that is social media (and let’s face it; isn’t it all social media by now?).

Because social media started out as something that only ‘teens took part in, and it was purely ‘social’, some business owners appear to be largely unaware of the impact that social media has now. They’re verbal about the fact that they have no idea how much work it is to cut through all the white noise that’s already in front of their prospective customers on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.

Ask that business owner about buying ad space in their quickly dying local paper, and they’re all about it. But talk to them about social media/digital marketing, and the objections come fast and furious.

As someone who lives in the social media space, I’m more often than not, completely dumbfounded by those who assume that what we do, is still purely ‘social’, some commenting “so why should we pay you to do this for us, when the tools are free, and from what we understand, can be automated?”

The question makes me smile. It’s not a good smile.

I think that the bulk of those who manage social media for companies large and small would agree with me, when I say that managing this marketing aspect for those companies is anything BUT free.

It takes time, it takes patience, it requires strategic knowledge, and it definitely requires skill. Sure, the tools can be free, but even then, they’re only free to a certain level. Past that point, you’ve gotta “pay to play”. And if you’re paying, you’d better damn well know what you’re doing.

Learning how to apply strategy to the use of those “free” tools actually costs more than money. It’s insane how time consuming it is, and you know how quickly those computer minutes can fly. That time, is time that the average business owner can’t afford to spend on social media marketing because he/she has a literal hundred ‘more important’ things to do, and think about.

He’s not interested in ‘getting his hands dirty’ with all of the testing and tweaking, and more testing and more tweaking of his marketing strategies. He thinks that he’s “spending good money” on someone who can simply put his marketing on autopilot, and forget about it.

Let me let you in on a secret; there’s been a ton of ‘chirping’ about automation when it comes to social media, but fully automating your social media tools isn’t always a good thing.

Social media for business is essentially meant to start a dialogue with your customers, past, present and potential. Period. Conversation leads to familiarity. Familiarity leads to trust. Trust leads to sales. It’s that simple.

With regard to automating your marketing, how does a customer ‘trust’ a robot?

So now you ask, “But Debbie, can’t I micro-target my automated social media messages?” meaning, rather than automate all processes at random, you’re targeting to a specific type of market.

To which I’d say that you can do whatever you want. But the main problem with automation with regard to micro targeting is this;

Let’s say that you ‘follow’ me as a potential customer on Twitter, and I follow you back. The act of following you back triggers an automated message on your part, thanking me for following, and offering me some product or service, etc. by direct message or simple ‘tweet’.

But what happens afterward when I send a ‘human’ response to your account, which has been fully automated?

I’ll tell you what happens; nothing. Radio silence. And as the human component, I’m thinking one of two things;

1. “Why’s this dude ignoring me?” or

2. “Crap. Tricked by a robot.”

I usually assume it’s the latter.

So sure, your micro targeting paired with automation snared your ‘ideal customer’ and got her to respond, but you’ve chased her away by ignoring her. There was no ‘dialogue’. There was no interaction. And now your potential customer is chapped because she ‘spoke’ to your robot, thinking that a human would actually respond.

So with all this automation, who’s actually paying attention?

For most, the ‘social media game’ is about who can acquire the most followers in the shortest period of time. Targeted or not, they don’t really seem to care (just ask the CRM companies who’re pitching their products to other CRM companies on Twitter).

They’ve got themselves an audience at whom they can ‘pitch’ their products or services. But when that audience actually responds, they get nothing back.

So essentially, you’ve sucked them in, so you can ignore them. Or worse, now that they’re ‘following’ you, they get to see your ‘sales pitches’ in their feed, and you ignore their messages.

That’s kinda crappy.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some social media tasks that can easily be automated, and in order to scale your marketing efforts, they should be.

But it takes time, patience and skill to set up and run a social media marketing strategy with automation that works in a way that doesn’t send your customers sprinting for your competition.

From my client conversation about automation and micro targeting in social media; “If you aren't gonna follow up when you get a response to someone that you targeted, then you are a total idiot and I’m curious as to why you would have a twitter account at all and try to get me to respond?”

I took the long way getting here, but my client made made my point in a nutshell.

Thanks DW. Always cool chatting with you J

Peace xo

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*Feel free to repost this article to your blog or website, but in doing so, you must also include this portion: 

Debbie Burgin is a marketing specialist to small and not-so-small businesses alike. For Rock Star business marketing tips, hop over to her blog at venturedigitalmarketing.net. 

4 Easy Ways to Get Your Brand Noticed on Social Media

There’s absolutely no getting away from it anymore. Social media is here, and it’s here to stay.

My name is Debbie Burgin, and I’m the president at Venture Digital Marketing. I’m also a card-carrying social media junkie.

I used to crack jokes when I was watching TV, when at the end of a commercial there’d be a ‘blurb’ saying “Like us on Facebook” or some such social media plug for whichever company was paying for the commercial.

Now it’s so commonplace that I don’t even notice it anymore.

Whether your company is involved in fashion, automotive or real estate, there are any number of digital vehicles that you can utilize for social media success. But you don’t just want to “utilize”. You want to stand out! You want your company to be the name on the lips of its customers, not some random widget maker.

So how do you go about shaking up the world of social media with your products or services?

Here are the 4 triggers that generally set the brain in motion when I start a new client on the road to social media success. These are just a few easy ways to utilize some of the tools at your social media fingertips;

1. Think “Smart”

Once you realize that in the social media realm, very few things are impossible, it kind of ‘sets you free’ in terms of how you’ll think about reaching out to those who should be buying your products and/or services. Within each vehicle, there is more software and apps that help you accomplish “smart marketing” (aka: “outside the box”) tasks.

        2. Use Video/Mini Slide Shows in Place of Photos

Instagram, as you probably know, is essentially a photo sharing vehicle. But why stop at a plain old photo?

When utilizing Instagram, instead of posting a simple picture, the platform will accommodate video of about 13 seconds in length. Why not make a 13 second ‘slideshow’ of your best sellers, newest pieces, etc.? Better yet, why not create a separate account that just houses your fashion video and/or slide shows?! (I’m sorry…once my brain starts going, it’s really difficult to stop, so please bear with me.) The same idea can be utilized on Twitter and Facebook.

PicSlide is an easy to use app that lets you build 13 second slide shows that you can share with your followers (and their followers, etc.), and it’s super easy to use. Whether your product is shoes, beauty products, clothing, whatever. Provide your followers with an abbreviated version of each collection/season/new products on this account.

If you’ve got the kind of designs that are frequently worn by celebrities and other notables, why not create slide shows of your creations as worn by those people?

     3. Don’t be afraid. It won’t bite.

Twitter is the app/software of choice for those who like to post in short bursts of 140 characters. Periscope is a “live video streaming platform” which basically means that you can transmit a live recording of yourself to your Periscope and Twitter followers.

Using a vehicle like Periscope, you can let “fans” of your products in on some of the ‘top secret’ goings on for a part of the production of a much awaited piece or a collection, do a customer generated Q&A with your creative director, and stream it on Twitter or Facebook. The possibilities are literally endless.

It happens on occasion that I’ll make what initially sounds like a hair-brained suggestion to a client about some aspect of their marketing, in which I’ll catch that ‘deer in the headlights’ look that says, “Uhhh…what?” I love that look! Those are the suggestions for ideas that usually catch fire, so if/when you (or your marketing genius) get an idea to try something that to the best of your knowledge, hasn’t been done before (might even sound a little crazy), don’t be afraid, GO FOR IT!

     4. Automation Rocks!

Most business owners don’t have the time or the inclination to manage their social media tasks throughout the day/week/month. Automating those tasks say…once a week for days, up to a week at a time can help you stay on task and keep you in front of those who’re interested in what your company has to say. Drop in every once in a while and interrupt the automated tasks with some “real life” communication. Mix it up a bit!

The above are just a few really simple, but effective ways of giving your brand a “leg up” in the race to the social media top of the heap. If you’re not comfortable figuring out how to go about managing your marketing, Venture Digital would be happy to help! Simply drop us a line at hello.venturedigital@mail.com. 

What IS Data, and Why Should I Be Collecting It?

by Debbie Burgin

Collecting customer data is literally creating a way to increase sales at the click of a button.

But what is data?

I mean…we hear the word all the time, and it conjures up an image of giant computers in some dark dank corporate room, buzzing, whirring, flashing and beeping, spitting out long narrow sheets of nonsense type that can only be read by other computers, or someone with 7 university degrees in reading the stuff.

Isn’t that what you think when you hear the word “data”?

The dictionary defines “data” as “facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis”.

“Facts and statistics?” Ugh!

Wikipedia defines “data” as “individual pieces of information”, and this definition makes more sense to the layman, so for the purpose of this article, it’s the definition that I’ll be referring to.

When I tell clients that they should be collecting ‘data’ from their customers in order to successfully tailor their marketing efforts (digital and otherwise), they often look at me with a frown and tilt their heads to one side, totally imagining this ‘data’ to be the image that I mentioned in the beginning of this piece. I then have to use the Wikipedia definition to help clarify that misconception.

The data that we refer to is just basic pieces of personal information. It’s that simple. Nothing major; a first name and email address will generally suffice. And if you don’t want to get that complex, you can drop the first name.

The less information you ask your customer to provide, the more likely it is that you’ll actually get what you do ask for. No one wants to spend twenty minutes filling out a form as a customer in any business setting, let alone in an establishment where part of the general premise is to relax (ie; restaurant, hair salon, etc.)

So now you ask; “Why am I collecting this ‘data’ on my customers? Like I don’t have enough to do?”

That’s a great question.

Collecting customer data doesn’t have to be a huge chore. Back in the day, it was common to see a fish bowl on the front desk of a restaurant, for customers to leave a business card with some kind of potential ‘reward’ for doing so. Someone in the restaurant would then pull ONE card a week (or month) out of that bowl for some kind of freebie. But this is 2016, and you’d better be using every one of those cards in your marketing strategy.

The old school fish bowl has its advantages; you get a truck load of information with what is probably the least amount of effort from your customer or client (fantastic for restaurants and salon type businesses). And once you have that precious information, you can bring that customer (and his/her friends and acquaintances) back into your business with the click of a button, knowing that he/she has actually come in with the intention of spending money, and it works for just about any type of business.

Cool right?

If you’re not already collecting customer data in some way, you’re leaving money on the table…period. You probably already have in your possession, a kick ass way to collect simple customer data (like a fish bowl, for Pete’s sake), but might be baffled as to how you should go about implementing it, or what to do with the information once you have it.

If that’s the case, shoot me an email! I’d love to show you how to dramatically increase your sales with the simple click of a button J

Marketing Your Brand New App

These days, everyone has a great idea for an app.

According to Apple, app developers are submitting more than a thousand apps per day to the App Store.

THAT is mind boggling.

There are currently 1.9 million apps available on the US App Store, 1.7 million of which are available for download. 73% of those apps are free, while paid apps have an average price of $1.27. Paid games are priced at an average of .63 cents.

That said, coming from a marketing standpoint, that’s a serious consideration in marketing dollars!

But how do you go about marketing your brand spanking new app? How do you go about making your new baby a success?

Well…you if you wait until your app is finished to start marketing, you’ve waited too long. Generally, you should start marketing long before it’s finished and ready for market.

While you’re concerning yourself with the things that go into your app’s characteristics like ease of use and user experience, design, and user retention, you should also be working on the various ways in which you’ll be marketing your app.

Typically speaking, you probably have a limited budget for app marketing, and there are some low cost ways to go about it;

Website and Blog:

Does your app have a corresponding website yet? How about a blog?

Both go without saying, but you need a site, and a blog like…yesterday. If you don’t already have them, get both…NOW. You need people to find you on the web, and both are great to have for contact and support, not to mention branding purposes. As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, there are millions of apps on the app store, so app store marketing alone isn’t going to be sufficient.

Initially, you can get started with a simple landing page, making sure to include a way for your visitors to sign up for your newsletter (subscription form). Add a blog, in which you can keep your visitors informed with the progress of your app’s development.

For your blog, the more you share with your audience, the more included they’ll feel and the more visibility your app can get.

Inbound and/or Content Marketing

As I said before, you’ll need to add helpful information to your blog about your upcoming app. When using your app’s website and blog as marketing tools, remember that it’s a process that takes time. Using measuring tools helps keep track of what’s going on in your marketing plan at just about any given time, and how it’s working…or not working. 

Using Content as a Marketing Strategy

by Debbie Burgin

If you’re currently marketing your business online and haven’t put much thought into using content as a marketing strategy on your website/blog, you might be making an expensive mistake.

What IS “content”?

Well, more simply put, “content” is what’s known as blog posts, or articles…anything in which you’d be sharing information with others about some aspect of your business.

The easiest way to provide content to prospective customers would be by way of a blog.

Whether or not your company has a website, you should absolutely have a blog to accompany it.

Why?

Some business owners think that it’s enough to have a website to display their products or services. And ‘back in the day’, that was probably true.

But in this, the age of ‘inbound marketing’, where your potential customer is going to likely hop online to search for information about a product or service before he/she actually goes out and buys it, you want them to find you because of the information that you’ve provided them.

The content on your website is valuable for a number of reasons. It gives visitors to your website their first impression of your business and the products and services you have to offer. In addition, well written content can be instrumental in selling your products and services to your potential customers.

Well written copy can also let your site visitor know that you’re knowledgeable in your industry, thereby giving them the confidence that they need to dig a little deeper into how you can best service their needs with what you have to offer.

The content on your website can also influence the size of the target audience you are able to reach by helping to improve your search engine rankings. With your content capable of doing so much, it’s clear that you should either be writing your own site content, or hiring a professional content writer to assist you with writing the copy for your website.

It should go without saying, but one of the most basic reasons that the quality of the content on your website is so important, is because visitors to your website will very likely form their initial opinions of your business based on the content that you put on that site. If the copy is written as if by a 5 year old, is riddled with spelling errors and doesn’t hold your visitors attention, they’ll probably leave your website at the point that all the ‘fluff’ becomes annoying.

Conversely, if the copy on your website is well written, engages the reader and promotes the products and services you offer well, your visitor is more likely to investigate the website further to learn more about the products and services and may make a purchase, or inquiry.

The content on your website is also important because it can greatly influence your search engine rankings. This is critical because high search engine rankings help your business to reach a larger audience, by coming up closer to the top of the Google search page.

Those searching the web are typically looking for information quickly and want quick results to their inquiries. Search engines understand this and write algorithms that help them to supply the most relevant websites when a user searches for a particular word or phrase. This is important to your business because those of us who conduct web searches (and who doesn’t?) realize the value of search engines and are likely to only visit websites that rank well in the search. This includes websites that rank on the first page or two of search results. Your business might sell football jerseys and you may have a well designed website, a superior inventory and excellent prices, but if your site doesn’t rank well in search engines because it’s lacking content that would help boost your Google standing, you’re missing out on a TON of free advertising.

If your website lands on the third page or lower, most visitors who search for relevant terms probably won’t visit your site because they will likely have found what they were looking for on earlier pages. This is where the content on your website becomes super important. Sites containing content that has been optimized for particular keywords will likely rank well with search engines. Hiring a writer who is skilled in writing optimized content can drastically help to improve your search engine rankings so that your site lands on those first few search result pages, therefore reaching more potential customers.

If your site doesn’t already have content that relates to your product or services, what’re you waiting for?