Email Marketing is Still Essential

Now a days, companies are so focused on SMM (social media marketing), while they downplay email marketing. This internet tool might be “old school”, but it still remains essential and effective. It all depends on how it is implemented.

If you want truly want to create an effective email campaign, the email list must be WILLING to receive emails from you. There is a saying in the automotive industry which goes, “built, not bought”, which implies that goods that are bought will never be as good as something that was created genuinely. This applies directly to email marketing. Obtaining a list rather than purchasing a random email list is not hard, but takes a lot of work. To begin, you must ask your target audience if they want to receive additional information. This can be done through a permission process after purchasing a product, creating a forum account, etc. The step after is simply choosing the right content to send.

Side note: Why is this segment of marketing still essential? This is due to the fact that all large percentage of online activity is somehow connected to your email. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you checked your email? Exactly.

 

Video Marketing Tips For The Price-Conscious

Video marketing has proven to be effective when it comes to getting your point across. The effectiveness of videos ultimately depends on the quality. A video with great quality can boost your company (check out my previous post: https://garymarketing.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/acquisition-attention-through-video-marketing/). On the other hand, a video with poor quality can have negative effects on your company. Although this is true, you don’t need thousands of dollars worth of equipment to create a video that comes with a punch!

Here are some general tips that can help you with your video:

1. Equipment – A hi-tech camera is not required. The majority of smart phones come equipped with decent cameras.
2. Lighting – Sufficient lighting is crucial when it comes to video quality. Check your surroundings before you shoot.
3. Stability – “Shaky” videos are unappealing and unprofessional. Stabilization tools can be purchased online (Amazon)
4. Sound – The integrated microphone on a smart phone does not pick up sounds from afar too well. As an alternative, microphone extensions can be purchased that can adapt to your device.
5. Timeline – Before you start to shoot, write a script and plan your shots. Planning rather than shooting on the fly will save you time and money.

 

Acquisition & Attention Through Video Marketing

Personally, visual aides are more effective than words when it comes to grabbing my attention. I am assuming the majority of consumers behave similarly. The popular saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” is extremely relevant when it comes to internet marketing. Imagine the effectiveness of a video. The number of people watching videos online now-a-days is increasing rapidly. Don’t believe me? Take a gander at YouTube’s recent statistics!

YouTube Stats:

1. One billion unique users visit YouTube each month
2. Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
3. 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
4. YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network
5. Mobile makes up almost 40% of YouTube’s global watch time

http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

It is not surprising that YouTube is the second largest search engine. Text will always be essential, but the use of video marketing can add value and put some emphasis on what you and your company are trying to tell your target market. There are four types of videos that can help your company: Company profiles, product demonstrations, testimonials, and video series (e.g. short advertisements, tutorials). All in all, these videos can boost brand awareness, reputation, and credibility.

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Let’s take a look Taco bell’s advertisement series on YouTube

The company actively posts content on YouTube when they launch new products. In this particular piece of the video series, Taco Bell cleverly pushes their happy hour deal. The video is amusing, entertaining, and effective.

 

Market on Instagram

Even though Instagram has been a forefront for “selfies” and memes, it has the potential of becoming a crucial social media platform for businesses. The social media outlet is able to tell a story, promote a product, generate brand reputation, etc. through the use of photos and short videos. The most important benefit of using this specific platform is the gain of awareness by means of visual aide. Facebook and Twitter offers that as well, but is usually flooded with text and unwanted content.

Instagram, the user-friendly mobile app, is becoming an excellent search tool as it takes advantage of #hashtags, which is a form of a metadata tag. The combination of awareness, search, and the ability to “like” a post, generates another important key component. Credibility. The credibility of a post/company can usually be gauged by the amount of likes/followers. It almost acts like a review system where the number of likes and #hashtags dictate credibility and attractiveness.

Large companies have already taken advantage of the platform through sponsored advertising. The “ad” shows up on an individual Instagram feed as a regular post and is not obtrusive like the sidebar in Facebook.

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 A company that has already taken the lead:

 

Hopefully this does not make you too hungry. Tacobell has been aggressive with their marketing strategy. With over 355K followers, Tacobell’s posts are able to gain about 20,000 likes per post. Their approach emphasizes on humor appeal and a young & wild life style which is clearly portrayed in their Instagram feed.

 A return on investment is difficult to measure when it comes to digital marketing, but it is evident that their initiative on Instagram has made an impact. From this example (post on right), we can see that Tacobell is able to successfully promote their breakfast campaign (includes the waffle taco) and emphasize their position, lifestyle, to their large following audience. 

 

As more and more people start to use Instagram regularly, the chances of your audience to look for you Instagram with increase as well. It’s time for you to plan your Instagram Initiative!

 

Mobilize Your Marketing Strategy

I am currently having this issue of always running low on battery when it comes to my smart phone. As school work and actual work continue to accumulate on my already busy schedule, I often find myself relying more and more on my mobile phone for everything. I take advantage of the little machine for its searching, web surfing, entertaining, and navigating capabilities, just to name a few. I am sure this is  the norm for most people. I own three computers (do not ask why) which sit idle at home. You might ask, why don’t you just use a computer to do those things? Yes, a computer may be faster, bigger, and better, but it lacks in one department. Mobility. It is not like I can lug around a 15.6 inch laptop with me everywhere I go. Lately, I’ve been finding myself glaring at my Samsung Galaxy S4 a few hours a day instead of my computer screen. My main concern is, will my experience be the same, worse, or better if i visit your page with my mobile device?

You might reconsider your digital strategy after taking a look at Brian Solis’ article, “Forget about Social Media for a moment. What’s your mobile strategy”?

Forget about Social Media for a moment. What’s your mobile strategy?

The key point Brian brings out is the fact that more and more people are using mobile devices rather than clunky computers to view your webpage. The estimated number of tablet users for 2014 is 90 million. This “fad” is not going away anytime soon. Have you visited your company website with your mobile device? Is your site designed for mobile use? Is your mobile page load speed faster than your competitors? Will the end user have a good experience if they visit your page on their phone? Imagine yourself being the mobile end user that is looking for company Z. Company Z’s mobile page is confusing and takes a while to load. Company Y’s page is fast and clear. It won’t take long before the user switches and says, “Z ya later”.

Example of a bad mobile experience. Confusing, slow, and wordy.

Example of a good mobile experience. Clear, fast, and concise.

Take away: Strategically Mobilize before your competition does.