It's Time to Think About Your Holiday Promotions

We've had some record heat lately, so it can be challenging to think about silver bells, holly trees, and frosty air. But if you don't plan your holiday promotions now, you can be left without the homey glow of candlelight to keep you warm. Today, you need to make a list and check it twice - whether you have a retail business, a non-profit, or any other kind of operation:

Holly, from Flickr user Arquera.

1) What are your goals for this holiday season? Some retailers get up to 40% of their annual sales during the winter holidays and the end of the year is peak time for most non-profits as people want to be generous and be sure to have their tax deductions ready. Do your financials and figure out what you need to bring in.

2) What's your strategy for reaching that goal? Are you going to start before Halloween, as more and more retailers do? Are you going to peg big sales/donation drives to Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa? When do you expect to meet each goal milestone? Are there particular items that are going to drive most of your sales? Do you have an overarching theme?

3) What tactics are pegged to those strategies? Is it the 12 toys of Christmas? Give for Thanksgiving? How are you going to use email, social media, your web site, your telepresence, videos, traditional mail, and everything else in your arsenal to support your strategies?

4) What do you need to do now? If your major holiday promotion is tied to polka dot ties, you need to make sure you have them, and their displays, packaging, and shipping materials, in stock soon. If you're going to be sending out holiday cards to donors, you need to get these designed and ordered now. If there's some heavy lifting to do on your web site that your in-house staff can't do, think about what you need and talk to a consultant now. Lots of us are busy during the holidays and we'd much rather help you today.

What are your holiday plans? Please share.

Customize Your Message for Each Channel

This week, I want to share a story with you about message customization.

I once worked with a client on an advocacy effort to improve local public safety. Because they'd been told to try more online messaging, they were using Twitter to try and reach all of their messaging goals. Not unexpectedly, it wasn't quite working.

Lots of ways to get the message out. Photo: Kevin Poh.

I encouraged them to think of the overall campaign, and all groups they wanted to reach - local government officials were the primary targets, but they also wanted to move petition-signers, public safety workers, crime victims, and local media.

We discussed the best channel for outreach to each group, based on the makeup of the group and the action we needed them to take. We found that most of the local officials we needed weren't active on Twitter, but we knew they were reading the local paper, and that journalists from the local paper were on Twitter, so we tweeted at targeted members of the media instead, in conjunction with some more traditional media outreach.

We also used Twitter to listen to local discussions of crime and public safety, and inserted ourselves into that dialogue.

When it was time to reach out directly to the officials, who had seen our news stories thanks to our media outreach, we found it was actually more effective to use a combination of more traditional channels to get the officials to act. They were more receptive to our emails and phone calls because they had seen the news stories we'd been able to get.

Facebook, we found, was a great place to reach our petition-signers and also to collect victim stories. These victim stories and petition activities then became online content, that we used in our continued email outreach.

Your takeaway?

Consider your overall goals and align the channels you use to those goals. Not every channel can address every goal. Don't discount traditional channels because they're not new. It can take a combination of messages to get the results you want.

Related Posts


How to Use Twitter for Listening
Using Social Media Strategically

Using Social Media Strategically

Right now, I'm doing some work with a client that's really starting to use social media more often, and more freely to promote its work and events.

Path from Flickr user Runran.

Recently, I delivered a bunch of numbers to them, using Piktochart, a handy tool I found for creating simple infographics.

The good news was, as a result of promoting our work on Twitter and Facebook, all traffic measures went up. More people watched videos, shared our content, commented on our posts, used our hashtags, and became fans of our pages than ever had before.

So, what do we do with all of this great attention?

It's important to make sure that when we generate a lot of traffic and attention to our content, that we have a goal in mind, and that we're leading people down a path towards that goal.

If we have a great new video, we need to make sure that we think about what we want people to do after they watch it. Watch another video? Subscribe to our email list? Share with a friend? Complete another action?

We (and you) really need to think about the path to conversion.

If you find, for example, that in your businesses, most of your sales come from email, then when you do an attention campaign like we did last week, you should be including an email sign-up call-to-action with the content you're promoting. With your videos, on your Facebook page, in your blog posts and on your site.

If you're not thinking about the path to conversion, you'll be setting the wrong expectations for your team.  It may be that people who like your posts on Facebook just aren't ready to buy your product - they need a little more encouragement. So the conversion goal for your Facebook fans won't be a sale  - it'll be an email sign-up.

Once you've established your conversion goal for each of your channels, then you'll be able to better determine what content goes where and customize it appropriately.

How are you using Facebook? What about Twitter? How do you inform, engage, and convert on each of your channels? Send me a note or let me know in the comments.

Related Posts

Make Your Content Go Viral

What to Do When They Won't Go Social

The Best Approach to Email Marketing

A new survey finds that marketing messages received via email are the most likely to make us shop. (Exact Target via Business Insider).

Email. From Flickr user Matt Wi1s0n.

In fact, the Exact Target data tells us something really interesting. While many blogs and news outlets have trumpeted the death of email, this is largely for personal communications. That's right - if I want to talk to my college roommate, I'm reaching out to her on Facebook, not email, and if I want to say hi to my husband during the workday, it's best to send him a text.

BUT.... EMAIL IS CONSUMERS' PREFERRED DIRECT MARKETING CHANNEL.

Sorry for the shouty caps, but this is really important. Consumers want to receive marketing messages on email, where they can easily save them for when it's convenient, and email goes where they do - on their mobile devices, tablets, laptops, and desktops. 77% of consumers in the survey said they preferred their permission-based marketing to come through email.

At the same time, marketers are picking up this message and online consumers have received 21% more email marketing messages in the first quarter of 2012, compared with the same time last year. (Responsys via Internet Retailer)

What's your takeaway here?

Let's talk for a minute about how you can make email marketing work for you. What's the best way to approach email marketing now that your customers are so distracted by games, Twitter, and Facebook?

If you've been ignoring your own email list, it's time to get it out and dust it off again. After all, the people on your email list have either purchased your products at some point, or otherwise opted in to get your messages. These are people who already like your brand.

So put yourself in their shoes for a minute. If you were getting email from a retailer you liked, what would you want to see?

1. Free shipping. This is the #1 strategy and has been for a while now. If you can make this work financially, do it. You can try it for a limited time, for purchases over a certain amount - whatever doesn't kill your profits.
2. What's New? People will get bored if you send them messages about the same thing every week. Change it up - tell them about your new items, new trends, and new uses for your products. How does your product make your customers' lives easier?
3. Be timely. What's going on right now? April is Earth Day and I've already seen some green messaging in my email inbox. Look at holidays - both those in the mainstream, like Easter and Passover, and the more quirky, like No Housework Day (it was on April 7), or Dance Like a Chicken Day (May 14).

Can your business adopt one of these crazy holidays and do a social campaign around it? You could gain a lot of new fans by asking folks to send videos of themselves dancing like chickens. Post the best ones to your Facebook page, and then let fans vote for the winners, who get a prize. Fight Procrastination Day isn't until September 6 this year, so think about this now instead of later.

How can you solve common problems with your email marketing?

1. Bad addresses? Ask your customers to update you every time they buy. If people can set up accounts on your web site, send a request for account updates at least once a year.
2. Low open rates? Work on your headlines, even test two against each other to a small portion of your list, and deploy the winner to your entire group. Also, look at your email results over the past year and see which messages had the best open rates. Try a similar approach and see how that works for you.
3. Low click through rates? Writing the world's best headline won't help you any if the message and the headline don't seem congruent. The message should be in a brand and tone that matches your headline. Make sure the call to action is clear, and that there are multiple opportunities for customers to click. Ask for the sale. Use engaging visuals.
4. Low action rates? What happens to customers once they click through. Do they get to a page with the content they expected, or do you dump them on your home page without any guidance? Consider investing the time to develop a special landing page for your emails, which helps customers understand what to do next.
5. Small list? Since we know now that consumers are most likely to want marketing messages on email, consider directing advertising and social efforts towards getting them to sign up. Also, make email sign up prominent on your home page, and part of your checkout process.

Questions, comments, concerns? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences on email marketing. Please share in the comments or drop me a line.

Social Media Trends for the Next Year

A few days ago, I attended a fantastic webinar, State of Social Media Marketing 2012, with Kipp Bodnar of Hubspot and Michael Seltzer from Social Media Examiner.

So many networks, so little time: Flickr user socialmediahq.

Much intelligence was shared, and I came away with a few nuggets to share with you, dear readers:

1) This year is about video. 76% of marketers surveyed said that they wanted to expand their video presence this year. Video helps your SEO numbers (don't forget that Google owns YouTube), provides sharable content to your fans, and helps your customers get more engaged with your product.

2) Google+. Most marketers want to explore Google+ but haven't had the time just yet. Those of us who are on there sometimes feel a  bit lonely. Seems like there are a lot of members but not a lot of engagement. That may change as marketers figure out how to connect their websites and blogs with the Google+ badge. Connecting the two means that marketers are then better able to control how they are viewed in search results - content posted on Google+ will be near the top of the results.

3) Ubiquity. Nearly 25% of time spent online is spent on social media sites. Only 10% of small business say they won't use social media this year. So if you're still shunning channels like Facebook or LinkedIn, it might be time to rethink a bit. And according to this article, 91% of adults use social media, with Pinterest growing quickly to become the No. 3 network, after Facebook and Twitter.

4) Targeting. Some of the people on this discussion thought targeting wasn't too important. This is valid - one of the wonderful things about social media is that anyone with an internet connection can participate. HOWEVER, one of the more amazing things about social media is that as time goes on, opportunities to target really specifically abound. Extremely targeted advertising opportunities are now available on both LinkedIn and Facebook. Have you tried this yet?

5) Time: There's a correlation between how many years of experience people have using social media, how much time they are spending on it, and how much success they see. Basically, the more the better. It's true that we all can't spend 24 hours a day on Twitter, but you may see some improvement by just dedicating a little more time to join conversations about your industry and your business.Try adding a few more posts on Facebook each week, and see what happens.

Here's the link to the 2012 State of the Social Media Marketing Industry webinar.

What do you think the next year holds in store for you?

Do Some Spring Cleaning for Your Online Channels

So, this week is the beginning  of spring, and if you’re here in DC, the Cherry Blossom Festival is getting well under way – the warm weather we’ve had has them blooming earlier than usual.

Tulip. Photo: Leah Ibraheem.

It’s also time to start your Spring Cleaning – clear out the clutter that’s been accumulating since last year, airing out the rooms, and get a fresh start.

Yes, your online properties could also use some decluttering. 

Let’s start with your web site: 

1) Is the contact information correct? Did you add or change any locations, phone numbers, or social media feeds since your last update? Don’t let missing or incorrect contact information stand in the way of a great customer experience.

2) Are the products current? Remove any items you’re not selling anymore. It’s also a good idea to suppress things you don’t have in stock right now, but might bring back later. You always want to point customers to things you have on sale now – things they can get right away.

3) Do you need to refresh your imagery? If you’ve had exactly the same images on your web site for several months now, you might want to refresh your hero photos and stories. A web site that doesn’t have rotating content can seem stagnant, like you aren’t really paying attention.

How about your Facebook page? 

1) Have you updated with the new timeline structure? Do you have the images and other content you need to do this? Here’s a handy primer from Social Media Examiner on the new look and feel, and how to make it work for you.

2) Are you using Facebook Insights? Facebook’s reporting can tell you the basic demographics of your fan base and how engaged they are. You can use this data to get more fans by advertising to people who are similar to your fan base. You can also use this data to talk about things that will interest your core demo in a way that appeals to them. It’s critical to know whether your Facebook fans are 20-year-old guys or 40-year-old women, and if they are in Topeka, Trenton, or Tuscon.

3) Are you using Facebook Ads? I find that Facebook ads can be more effective than Google ads at driving traffic – I have the option on Facebook to advertise to fans of other brands and of specific topics, so it’s can be easier to identify prospects on Facebook than on Google Adwords, where I have to decide what keywords my audience might be searching.

What about your Twitter feed? 

1) Should you keep tweeting? I love Twitter, but it can be a time-sponge. Now’s a great time to decide if you want to invest a little more time in Twitter by tweeting and retweeting every day.

2) Are you using twitter management tools? I use HootSuite to schedule and monitor tweets, but there are other tools that help you do the same. Scheduling tweets ahead of time can save you a lot of time, and keep you from ignoring Twitter for days at a time, which can be tempting.

3) Have you thought about a Twitter event? Hosting a Q&A with a product expert can be a highly effective way to get new followers. Try it and see what Twitter really can do.

How’s your spring cleaning going? Share in the comments and let me know.

The Introvert's Guide to Networking for Your Business

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about how to market your business using online tools - be it your web site, email, social media presence, or search engine optimization. You've been working on all channels to bring in customers, get those sales, and meet your goals.

From Flickr user Kevin Shorter.

But who is taking care of you while all of this is going on? What's keeping you from eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at your desk? Where are you getting new ideas, and with whom are you sharing them?

Yes, painful as it can be, you need to network!

You need some people to keep you sane, keep you inspired, and keep you on your toes.

I know how hard this can be - I am super-introverted myself. Large groups of new people exhaust me, but I promised myself that this year I would do more in-person networking anyhow.

I found out something really important when I began this exercise - if I have a small group of people where I can connect with each person authentically, my shyness disappears, and I'm able to offer value, and get something valuable from my networking experiences.

So how am I doing this? One thing at a time...

1) I looked at networks to which I already belong. I offered to plan some events for a book club I belong to through meetup.com. This seems like a pretty safe way to get to know the people in my club a bit better.

2) I'm keeping in touch with some old coworkers with monthly dinners to keep up on how people are doing personally, and professionally.

3) I'm meeting new people in my field on Twitter and LinkedIn, and I recently had dinner with one of them, which was lovely. Through that dinner, I've been invited to a lunch next month, which will be a slightly bigger, though still manageable gathering.

4) I am NOT attending large network events at bars that have 300 people at them. I know I won't get the value I need out of those experiences. They're designed for extroverts and I'm sure extroverted people have a great time at them.

5) I know myself and I use that knowledge to find the right networking moves for me. I know I'm best meeting people a few at a time, when I can really engage with each one of them. In this way, I can widen my circle gradually, but authentically. These new connections have given me great input, ideas, and inspiration.

What are your networking moves? I'd love to meet you so let's connect!

Your 2012 Strategy: Messaging on Multiple Channels

Like most marketers, you probably operate on multiple channels. You've got a web site, an email list, an advertising plan, some press releases, a Twitter presence, a Facebook page, and maybe even some direct mail.

Channels. Flickr user Dustin Askins.

While you don't want to repeat yourself verbatim across every channel all the time, it's a good idea to at least coordinate the message a bit. Why?

Your community now expects a pretty seamless brand experience. If they see a blog post promoted on Twitter, they want to be able to find it on Facebook if that's where they go next time they're online. If they find a sale on their tablet, they also want to be able to call and talk to your call center about the same deal. If it's mentioned in your ad, it should be on your web site.

How do you get this working?


Make sure you use consistent branding across all channels - customers want to be sure the company they trust on email is the same company they trust on Facebook. If your channel presences  have a consistent look, the experience is more seamless.

Keep your marketing and sales team in the loop. A good marketing calendar tells everyone what's going on when. You never want your sales floor to be caught flat-footed because they don't know about your latest Facebook deal.

Connect to your community where they live. Don't abandon channels because you don't see immediate results. It can take time to develop a strong Facebook and Twitter following, and you will likely find that customers may not buy directly from Facebook, but they do like to connect with your brand there while they purchase from  your email promotions.

Make information easy to find. Because your community expects a seamless experience, make promotions built for one channel (say, Facebook), easy to find other places people might look (like your web site).

Need help leveraging all your channels? Let me know. I can help.

Your 2012 Strategy: Four People You Need in Your Network This Year

It's easier to meet your goals if you don't go it alone. Now that you have your 2012 plan put together, you've got to get your network together. Here's who you're going to need the year:

Twitter Network. Image: Sue Waters.

Your champion: Someone who may be able to offer funding and resources, and more importantly, open doors and make connections to get you the resources you need to move forward.

Your superintendent: Someone who can see the roadblocks ahead and keep you on track. A person who will make sure your marketing plan turns into actual marketing.

Your Jedi master: A big picture person who can help you see where you fit into the grand scheme of things and who has an instinct for future trends, needs, and happenings.

Your wingman/wingwoman: Someone who is always there to bring you hope when you feel discouraged. Someone who believes in you when the chips are down and who can convince you to dust yourself off and try it all one more time.

The good news: You already have these people in your life - you just need to identify them. Make sure you talk to them regularly - some leaders even get their entire brain trust together regularly to stay on track.

Who do you go to for advice, encouragement, or a reality check?

Are we networked yet? Let's connect on LinkedIn.

Your 2012 Strategy: Driving Brand Engagement

How are you going to engage your community in 2012?

First things first. 

Change your headset – it’s not an audience, it’s a community.

What does an audience do? It watches.

What does a community do? It communicates, engages, and acts.

Community. From Flickr user Tobyotter.

Who’s doing this? One example I came across was Heinz – in the U.K., where they are a big soup brand, they’re getting fans to send personalized soup cans with “get well” messages to one another for cold and flu season. The cost is low - just 1.99 pounds, and the engagement factor is high – people are taking pictures of the cans, tweeting and sharing with others. The bonus – many people who had never purchased anything from Facebook before are now buying from Heinz in a new way.

How can you start driving your community to engage with your brand?

Monitor conversations – evaluate what people are talking about and why. With this insight, you can understand what’s going on before you get involved – to avoid barging in.

Track – what, when, how much interest, and sentiment. What are people saying about you and how often? Is there a time of day or week when you get more attention? What are people interested in the most, and is that interest - sentiment - positive or negative?

Community of dogs. From Flickr user Beverly & Pack.

Identify key influencers and track their conversations so that you can engage with them in a relevant, authentic way.

Look at what competitors are doing – what kinds of campaigns and activities are generating a lot of comments and buzz? Is it positive or negative.

Also, mobile is key. A recent statistic from Motricity that’s been getting some attention? 64% of holiday mobile shoppers plan to shop with their mobile device more in 2012 – with mobile coupons, giftcards, and ratings getting the most attention.

How are you driving engagement this year? Drop me a line and let me know.


Related posts: 

My series on 2012 planning
Why you should care more about tablet users

Making the Most of Your Email Marketing in 2012

If you think email is over, you’re wrong. But this is a popular time of year for people to unsubscribe from email lists that aren’t providing any value, so why is email important and how can you make subscribers stay?

Photo from Flickr user Cambodia4kidsorg.

It’s totally customizable! You can tailor email messages to your customer’s latest purchase, stated interests, location, or age. Whatever data you have on your customers can be used to make messages hyper-relevant. The more relevant your message, the more your subscribers will appreciate it an stay on your list. Ever try customizing your tweets?

You can test and re-test! Testing subject lines, images, and PS text will help you understand what drives your audience. Test a small portion of your email list and then send the winners to your larger list, driving up your open, click-through, and action rates. Testing also provides you with a scientific basis for your marketing strategy. Strategic proposals that are proven winners are likely to get more support from your executives and investors.

It's economical! Unless you are paying sites like Groupon or LivingSocial to do your email marketing for you while you deeply discount your products, email marketing can be very cost-effective- much more so than doing large direct mail campaigns or major ad buys.

Email should be a key part of your multi-channel strategy for 2012. It can help you generate leads, qualify customers, predict which products will be winners, and drive repeat business.

Drop me a line if you'd like to talk email marketing strategy.

Your 2012 Strategy: The Best Marketing Team for Your Business

As you continue to get your marketing strategy in order for 2012, it's time to give some thought to your marketing team. Is energy and time being spent in the right way to grow your business? Successful markeitng teams have these bases covered:

Teamwork. Photo: Flickr user Dawn (Willis) Manser.

Writing: Poor writing can derail even the most well thought out campaigns. Someone should be on top of your grammar, syntnax, and spelling, and be making sure to write in a way that appeals to and connects with your target audience.

Data: If you don't understand your customer data, you're marketing in the dark. If you don't have any data expertise on your team, consider hiring a consultant to train you on how to read your data and segment your customers.

Project Management: You need a real stickler to make sure your campaigns go out on time to the right audience and that you have the inventory to support them. Marketing can go terribly wrong if no one's paying attention to logistical matters.

Strategic Planning: Successful marketing plans align with your overall business goals, available resources, long range plans, and the channels and tools you plan to use. Without strategic vision, you'll just be sending out emails and posting on Facebook with few results.

Need help getting your marketing team aligned around the expertise you need to drive your business? Let me know - I can help.

Your Twitter Plan for 2012

What are your Twitter resolutions for 2012?

Twitter. Image: Flickr user Danilo Ramos.

If you're like most businesses, you have a feed, but you're not sure if it's really worth the time and effort. The more I use Twitter, the more useful I find it, and I encourage you to give it another try this year. Why?

1) Tablet users. 39% of tablet users use their tablet for social networking every day, and 87% use their tablets for shopping purposes. Because the tablet browsing experience is so much more comfortable than the smartphone browsing experience, tablet users can easily read your tweets and follow your links while they are shopping.

2) Thought leaders. Twitter is full of bloggers, journalists, influencers, and other thought leaders. People who are looking for trends, story ideas, and the next big thing are on Twitter. Provide them some inspiration and see your traffic rise. Don't be afraid to connect to influencers on Twitter - just follow them and reply to their tweets with a related thought.

3) Idea followers. Not everyone can be a thought leader all the time. Twitter is also full of people who are looking for news, interesting content, and practical advice, as well as good material to share with their own followers. Provide retweetable content and you'll find yourself with a solid following in no time.

Best way to get started on Twitter?

1) Follow and follow some more. If a Twitter feed looks interesting to you, follow it. What are you interested in? Where do you get your news? Which blogs do you read? Start there. Twitter will also suggest feeds for you to follow. Most people follow back.

2) Retweet and retweet some more. If you want people to share your content, you need to share theirs. Twitter is a reciprocal culture.

3) Be interesting! Here's some great advice from Forbes on how to be more interesting every day.

Need help encapsulating yourself in 140 characters or less? Let me know. I can help!

Your 2012 Strategy - Understanding Your Customer Data

Last week, I kicked off 2012 planning with a some notes on crafting your marketing framework around your overall business goals.

Data Disks. From Flickr user Emilian Robert Vicol.

This week, I want to have a bit of a chat with you about your customer data.

What do you know about your customers and how can you put that to use?

Here are a few basics to consider:

1) Geographic location - provide customers special deals based on the closest store location, on the season it is where they live, on the local sports team, or on common leisure activities in their part of the country. A strong local marketing strategy should be a key driver for your business.

2) Demographics - like age, income, net worth, and education - While lifestage is a stronger marketing metric, you can still tune the language and the imagery you use based on these kinds of metrics. Also, knowing the typical demographic of your customer is critical when you're considering where to advertise and how to price new products.

3) Purchasing behavior - this is really the strongest data you have. People's past behavior is the strongest indicator of future behavior. Important points to consider:

• Frequency - how often each customer buys
• Recency - when the most recent purchase was made
• Method of purchase - at the store, online on a computer, or online via a tablet or other mobile device
• Source of purchase - referred by another customer, responded to your catalog, clicked on an email, web search, responded to an ad, or direct visit to your web site

Once you understand purchasing behavior, you'll be able to group your customers by behavior and market accordingly - sending emails more often to email customers, turning up ads from places where customers are responding, and tuning your search marketing based on the keywords that are working for you.

Data is your most powerful marketing tool. If you're not using it, you're marketing with the lights off.

Need to turn off the dark? Let me know, I can help you make the most out of your data.

Why You Should Start Caring More About Tablet Users

The tablet is truly disruptive technology that is again changing how we consume information and how we buy. Experts predict that there will be almost 55 million tablet users by the end of 2012, most of them on the iPad.

It's time to ask yourself more about how tablet use affects your business.

Here's three basic points for consideration: 

Who are tablet users? Tablet users are more likely than the general public to be college educated, high-income, employed full time, and have a median age of 30 to 49. Many have become dedicated tablet users, abandoning other devices, like phones and laptops, to do their surfing on their tablets. They are also brand loyal, preferring to get their content from trusted providers and people/businesses they know.

How does your web site look on a tablet? If you don't have one, get one, borrow a few of the different models from friends, or just go to your local big box store and say you're interested in a tablet and check them out.

How are people using their tablets? The best way to understand the tablet experience is to have the tablet experience yourself. Borrow, or if you're able to, buy one. Tablets are much easier to carry around than a laptop, with an ease of use and speed that's much better than many mobile phones. The large screens make for better browsing and easy social networking - people can get at mobile apps, web pages, games, videos, and other experiences with speed and ease.

So, what's your takeaway? What does this mean for you?

When you're thinking about mobile customers - customers on the go who might want to buy from you - increasingly you'll need to consider tablet users.

So make sure you're addressing the needs of mobile customers in all of your campaigns - be local, social, and accommodating, and consider your app strategy carefully.

Other trends for 2012? 

Business News Daily has some interesting trend predictions, including gesture recognition (it's not going to stop at Kinect gaming technology), universal shopping experiences (across mobile, web, and in-store), mobile learning, and increased franchising.

What are you up to this year? Drop me a line and let me know.

Five Steps to a Better Facebook Feed in 2012

Like two thirds of small businesses, you probably put up a Facebook page at some point in the past couple of years. Maybe you're not keeping it up so much anymore because you don't really see the point, and your management doesn't see the results.

From Flickr user Max-B.

This is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy - if you don't see the point of your Facebook page, then you'll never see any results.

Re-evaluate your Facebook presence and determine how to use your feed more effectively this year.

Here's five easy steps to a better Facebook feed:

1. What are you hoping your Facebook page will accomplish? Do you have a goal for the number of fans you want, their level of engagement, or how much they buy? 
2. How much traffic is Facebook giving you each week, and what do you want those people to do once they get to your web site? If the path is unclear, help people find their way to where you want them to go. 
3. Add more variety - post special deals, videos, blog posts, contests, photos, questions, and surveys to add interest to your page. 
4. Post more often - if you've only been posting once a day, try posting 2 or 3 times. If you don't post on the weekend, consider trying a weekend post to see what happens. 
5. There are many ways to customize your Facebook business page. Think about adding some graphical interest for your fans. 

Need help making your Facebook presence work for you? Let me know- I can help.

PS - on a related note, a recent article in eMarketer discussed a BzzAgent study which found that social campaigns give a long-term boost to brands. Brand advocacy and purchase intent can remain elevated for a year following a social campaign. Food for thought.

Your 2012 Marketing Plan - Crafting Your Framework

It's a fresh new year, full of possibilities. Make the most of it with a strong marketing plan. Done right, your plan will carry you through the year, supporting your goals and keeping you from dangerous foxholes like procrastination and loss of focus.

Scaffolding. Flickr user Maurice Koop.

The most important part of your new plan?

Your overall business strategy - this is the basis for the framework that is your marketing plan.

Why is this so crucial?

Your marketing plan isn't  about checking off boxes and making sure you're dutifully providing content for each channel. Your marketing plan supports your larger business strategy and your overall goals.

That said, what kinds of goals do you have in 2012?

- To open a new location?
- To increase the size of your business?
- To find customers in other parts of the world?
- To reach a new vertical - like parents or teachers or hikers?

These kinds of things are your business goals and your marketing plan supports those goals. The tactics you put into place support the strategies you've decided to employ to grow your business.

Here's how the framework operates:

Let's take the first goal as an example -  to open a new location.

Your strategy is - "We're going to open a new location in 2012, and that will increase our business by x percent because we will be able to accommodate x more customers than we could with one location."

Your marketing plan supports this strategy because it's a framework for driving traffic to your new store. You'll be able to add to this framework with marketing tactics like ads in local papers and their web sites, announcements on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, participation in check-in applications like FourSquare, videos, and emails with grand opening specials to your email subscriber base. You can use your marketing calendar to schedule all of these things to provide a strong, consistent flow of traffic to your store. Your calendar provides a framework that supports your overall goals.

Here's the best part. If you're thinking of a tactic and wondering whether to use it, you can just ask yourself if it supports the business goal you've already identified - in our case today, to open a new location. Tactics that don't support this strategic goal don't belong in our framework.

Need help starting your 2012 Marketing Plan? Drop me a line and let me know. I can help.

How Do Your Customers Use the Internet to Find You?

If you haven't seen it yet (and even if you have, it's worth another look), check out this great infographic from Business Insider - Incredible Things That Happen Every 60 Seconds On The Internet. 

Infographic by Shanghai Web Designers.

Among other things, there are 98,000 tweets, 695,000 Facebook status updates, and more than 1500 new blog posts.

How much of this action are you getting? If you're like most smaller businesses, probably not much.

And that's OK - you don't need to own Twitter, you just need enough people tweeting about you to dive traffic to your site.

The best way to get people tweeting about you? Tweet about them. If you don't do much on Twitter, think about setting a new year's resolution to spend 10 minutes on Twitter each day. Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer can help you to schedule your tweets and better understand your traffic.
In the mean time, there's a new version of Twitter out there that's generating some positive buzz - here are the highlights from Social Media Examiner.

If you feel like kind of a Luddite these days, don't despair, among other things, people send 168 million emails every minute. If you don't have a robust email program, you probably need one, unless you're letting coupon sites like Groupon and LivingSocial do your email marketing for you.

Even if you are, do you really want to pay for your email by discounting your product by 50 percent? It's time to price out this tradeoff - there are a number of email services geared towards list building for smaller businesses, including Constant Contact, but there are others.

Do the math - how many customers have you gotten through these coupon sites and what did it cost you in discounting? What would happen if you invested this amount of money on an email program?

Need an experienced eye on your email, Facebook, and Twitter strategies? Wondering what the heck Pinterest is? I can help. Drop me a line.

News this Week: Dilbert, Congress, and K-Mart Angels

What should you be paying attention to this week? 

Angel. Flickr user Ewan Traveler.

From blogger Sarah Gallagher at Gears and Shifts, some words on employee morale and office culture based on the wisdom of Dilbert.

Your takeaway: It's time to look in the mirror. Are you allowing, fostering, or participating in anything that contributes to poor treatment or poor morale for employees? Are you using resources to benefit the company, or your own convenience? Are you rewarding identical behavior in some people, but not others? Make 2012 the year you treat your employees better and provide opportunities for them to grow. If you've got a bad boss, make 2012 the year you stop responding to bullying and other poor treatment and/or embrace a new opportunity.

As I'm writing this, Congress has finally approved a two-month extension on the payroll tax cut.

Your takeaway: I wrote about this possibility back in August -  and how it might make 2012 a more difficult year for pretty much everybody. The Obama administration helped things along with a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #40Dollars - asking Americans to tell Republicans what it would mean to us to lose $40 out of each two-week paycheck. You can find out more about the campaign and what $40 means to some people from this infographic, released by The White House. Let's hope Congress does the right thing and extends the payroll tax cut all the way through 2012.

Finally, in even better news, Secret Santas all over the country are paying off layaway accounts for strapped K-Mart shoppers, and a new study finds that Americans are, on average, more generous that people from any other country, with three out of five giving to charity and two out of five doing volunteer work this year, despite the poor economy. (Syracuse.com and ABC News)

Your takeaway? Who can you help between now and the end of the year? Take some cookies to a friend (or make a new one), walk the dog for an elderly neighbor, or make an extra gift to charity. The world will only get better if we make it that way.

Happy Holidays and thanks for reading!

Some Holiday Thoughts for 2011

From Flickr User ThisParticularGreg.

The week before Christmas is always so hectic, whether you celebrate the holiday or not.

People running around, getting ready to be away from work and school next week, and getting all that last minute baking and shopping done.

I'm not going to give you any new marketing advice this week - though if you have any super last-minute promotions, now's the time - but encourage you to take a minute to remember why you're in business in the first place.

What's the most important thing about your business?

The people.

Your employees, partners, vendors, clients and customers. 

You might have an A-1 business plan, the latest technology, and a super-cool product, but it won't make a difference if you don't honor, respect, and connect with the people in your working life.

Take some time today to say thanks - to your customers for buying, to your vendors and clients for doing business, and to your employees and partners for their support. Without recognition and positive energy, your best customers and employees will be seeking greener pastures. Your vendors perform better when they know you appreciate what they do.

I also want to thank you for reading this blog and for doing business with me. Without your support, feedback, and wonderful projects, I wouldn't be here. I hope that you and yours enjoy a warm, wonderful holiday season this year as a wonderful prelude to a successful 2012.