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CMO Council releases auto report indicating lack of social media leverage
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(Posted on Mar 11, 2014 at 12:43PM )
The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council has released a report indicating that the auto industry ecosystem should do more to leverage social media as a platform for driving business leads into sales pipelines.
Social media is stimulating extensive auto-related conversations and content that create major opportunities to identify likely buyers and engage them based on their preferences and purchase intent, according to the report, which is entitled 'Turning Social Feeds Into Business Leads'.Â
Developed in partnership with hoojook, a Silicon Valley social media intelligence company focused on the auto sector, the new report finds auto industry marketers are in various stages of adopting social marketing strategies and practices. Most see social as a potentially powerful medium for understanding and engaging consumers, but they are early in the development of marketing and business metrics, as well as processes that integrate social media data more effectively in the sales funnel.
"Social represents an important marketing frontier for the automotive industry," said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. "Senior marketers recognise its capacity to deliver actionable, real-time insights that can help drive overall marketing effectiveness. They also see its value as a dynamic channel for influencing brand preference and purchase. Now they need to take the next step by integrating social more directly into the sales funnel and using it as a new platform for delivering qualified leads."Â
Social media evidence
There is plenty of evidence demonstrating the potential of social as a marketing channel across manufacturing brands, dealerships and aftermarket products and services. For example:
• 38% of consumers say they will consult social media in making their next car purchaseÂ
• 23% of car buyers say they use social media to communicate their purchase experience
• 84% of automotive shoppers are on Facebook and 24% of them have used Facebook as a resource for making their vehicle purchases
• 40% of new car purchases over the next 10 years will be made by Millennials
• 94% of millennial car buyers gather information online
• Clicks on Facebook auto ads climbed from 16% to 39% between October 2012 and April 2013
Based on interviews with senior marketers and executives from auto manufacturers, dealer networks, aftermarket service providers and B2B automotive solutions companies such as Autonation, Costco Auto Program, Nissan, Cadillac, Car MD, KIA, Aspen, Express Oil Change, Mazda, Snap-on, Dealertrack, DME Automotive, the report finds that senior marketers are highly interested in developing and using new systems and processes to leverage social more effectively for lead acquisition and acceleration. However, most say they are only in the very early stages of the process and often express caution about possible brand reputation issues when overtly marketing to individuals on social.
Potential for an effective medium
Nonetheless, the report argues that the use of social in combination with natural language processing and big data analytics, along with social's ability to deliver meaningful content and commentary in context, has the potential to make it a highly effective medium for identifying, segmenting and engaging consumers based on preferences and where they are in the purchase cycle.
"The technology now exists to process and analyse social streams. Not only to understand broader consumer attitudes and reputational issues but also to identify, segment and profile individual consumers based on where they are in the purchase cycle, their preferences and needs and psychographic characteristics that influence how they want to engage with brands and service providers," said Shauli Chaudhuri, CEO of hoojook.Â
Other report insights
• Campaigns focused on cars generate much higher consumer engagement and interest than other social media initiatives, such as charitable causes
• Reputation management is seen as potentially the most critical aspect of social marketing, with consumer-generated content and commentary having a huge influence on purchasing decisions
• Marketers view social as most effective when integrated with other channels and marketing approaches; many view social analytics as an invaluable source of insight for other digital and offline marketing efforts
• Facebook is widely regarded as the most powerful social channel for automotive, but marketers say other channels can be more effective, depending on the need and strategy
BIZCOMMUNITY.COM Daily Industry News
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Developed in partnership with hoojook, a Silicon Valley social media intelligence company focused on the auto sector, the new report finds auto industry marketers are in various stages of adopting social marketing strategies and practices. Most see social as a potentially powerful medium for understanding and engaging consumers, but they are early in the development of marketing and business metrics, as well as processes that integrate social media data more effectively in the sales funnel.
"Social represents an important marketing frontier for the automotive industry," said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. "Senior marketers recognise its capacity to deliver actionable, real-time insights that can help drive overall marketing effectiveness. They also see its value as a dynamic channel for influencing brand preference and purchase. Now they need to take the next step by integrating social more directly into the sales funnel and using it as a new platform for delivering qualified leads."Â
Social media evidence
There is plenty of evidence demonstrating the potential of social as a marketing channel across manufacturing brands, dealerships and aftermarket products and services. For example:
• 38% of consumers say they will consult social media in making their next car purchaseÂ
• 23% of car buyers say they use social media to communicate their purchase experience
• 84% of automotive shoppers are on Facebook and 24% of them have used Facebook as a resource for making their vehicle purchases
• 40% of new car purchases over the next 10 years will be made by Millennials
• 94% of millennial car buyers gather information online
• Clicks on Facebook auto ads climbed from 16% to 39% between October 2012 and April 2013
Based on interviews with senior marketers and executives from auto manufacturers, dealer networks, aftermarket service providers and B2B automotive solutions companies such as Autonation, Costco Auto Program, Nissan, Cadillac, Car MD, KIA, Aspen, Express Oil Change, Mazda, Snap-on, Dealertrack, DME Automotive, the report finds that senior marketers are highly interested in developing and using new systems and processes to leverage social more effectively for lead acquisition and acceleration. However, most say they are only in the very early stages of the process and often express caution about possible brand reputation issues when overtly marketing to individuals on social.
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Nonetheless, the report argues that the use of social in combination with natural language processing and big data analytics, along with social's ability to deliver meaningful content and commentary in context, has the potential to make it a highly effective medium for identifying, segmenting and engaging consumers based on preferences and where they are in the purchase cycle.
"The technology now exists to process and analyse social streams. Not only to understand broader consumer attitudes and reputational issues but also to identify, segment and profile individual consumers based on where they are in the purchase cycle, their preferences and needs and psychographic characteristics that influence how they want to engage with brands and service providers," said Shauli Chaudhuri, CEO of hoojook.Â
Other report insights
• Campaigns focused on cars generate much higher consumer engagement and interest than other social media initiatives, such as charitable causes
• Reputation management is seen as potentially the most critical aspect of social marketing, with consumer-generated content and commentary having a huge influence on purchasing decisions
• Marketers view social as most effective when integrated with other channels and marketing approaches; many view social analytics as an invaluable source of insight for other digital and offline marketing efforts
• Facebook is widely regarded as the most powerful social channel for automotive, but marketers say other channels can be more effective, depending on the need and strategy
BIZCOMMUNITY.COM Daily Industry News
As I prepare for our Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta, and Sydney workshop tour in March, I can't help but think about how few of my U.S. and Western digital marketing peers know about China and APAC in general. And I think about how much I've learned beyond the anecdotal cultural experiences, like the everyday Chinese "looggeey" spit fest or 100-year-old egg cuisine, the two-handed business card introductory bow, and my subtle but important favorite, the homogeneity of an Eastern society (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) in understanding the world is not about self but the communal good (ahem, Gen Y'ers).No, let's talk about digital and how far ahead Asia is in so many respects and how we can all better apply it, especially all those Westerners setting into their 300-meter flats in Hong Kong or Shanghai looking to build the APAC presence for their companies.
First, let's get history straight. The Western world, for nearly all of civilized man, save the opium-induced decades of darkness, has been woefully behind Eastern society. This is happening in digital, mobile, and social, too.
- Take the Terracotta Warriors, where we learned that China had steel melding and modern metal-tipped arrows nearly 1,000 years before us.
- Or China's first emperor commanding an army 10 times the size of the largest army Rome ever assembled.
- And of course the bit more trite observation of who created the pasta noodle first.
Before I jump in, allow me to give a quick "Asia for Dummies" version of the players for our Western counterparts. In short, China mainland (Hong Kong is a bit different) is always the main focus, so will use that as the example going forward. But in looking at greater APAC, remember, Australia is very much aligned with U.S./English trends, but is just a bit behind on adoption. India is part of Asia, but most, like myself, treat it as its own market, as it is so unique and so large. Indonesia is handled in the same manner. Japan, Taiwan, and Korea need to be on your radar for APAC despite the largess of China and have very similar adoption curves, yet extremely different cultural nuances that simply can't be ignored. And Singapore is a great business- and tax-friendly place to set up an APAC office, but is just a city so not a "market" unto itself worth addressing in comparison.
With all that out the way, using China as the example, here is your quick first lesson to talk the talk when thinking about Asia and its comparatives here in the U.S./Western world.
Weibo = Twitter
Alibaba = Amazon (x 10)
Baidu = Google (for China); Google is still big elsewhere and Yahoo! for Japan
WeChat = WhatsApp
Renren = Facebook
Tencent QQ = Mobile app meets IM, with social gaming plus online shopping
Let's start with simple dollars (or RMB) and cents. Alibaba on its biggest shopping day saw $5.75 billion of transactions. The entire U.S., on its biggest day, saw $2.29 billion on all trackable e-commerce sites. Now, many of us are trying to determine the mobile implications and best practices. If you look at the fact that 41 percent of all shoppers buy their mobile device in Hong Kong, you'll quickly get a peek at what's coming our way in the U.S. and Western world.
It reminds me of a trip to Tokyo nearly seven years ago, where I was awestruck by nearly everyone looking down at their phones and texting while walking on and off a very busy subway stop in Roppongi. Literally, I thought... are these people addicted to their phones or just plain crazy?! And here we are today in the U.S., and anyone who has taken the 3 train across town in New York, nearly ran over a pedestrian in a crosswalk in San Francisco, or just looked around any given street, would see nearly the same. Point of the matter, Asia was and still is a great sneak peek at what's to come in adoption of digital, social, and mobile. And when you look at research showing us a 31 percent increase in digital/search advertising spend, and massive retargeting adoption, one must pay attention to how that ripples back to the U.S. market, which is heading in the same direction.
Quick note: If you are not retargeting today, stop reading this article and go set that up on Facebook and Google Display Network.
Now take a look at adoption; Twitter being in the limelight today seems like a good example. Last year only 15.1 percent of consumers said they use Twitter to share information, whereas in China more than 91 percent use Sina Weibo to share. Incredible, right? Maybe time to reconsider buying some Twitter stock, let alone looking seriously at how to leverage Twitter to get the following and awareness before it gets super competitive.
See these concepts in action at ClickZ Live New York 2014:
- Beyond the "Like": Social Media Tracking, Testing & Targeting
- The Marriage of Social Media & PR: Making it Work for Your Brand
So, if you are looking at Asia, China, and APAC, there is no option but to get engrained in social and mobile. If you are in the U.S., it's just one more wake-up call to remind us, Rome was not the first great civilization from which the world could learn its lessons - China and greater Asia was. Let's use its lessons to our advantage in our efforts to grow market share online.
By Aaron Kahlow
Fear is one of our most primal emotions, instilled from infancy. When my dad said I better stop crying or he’d give me something to cry about, do you know what I did?
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I shut the hell up.
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Yes, our natural instinct to avoid danger or harm is a powerful motivator and influencer of behavior. Always has been, always will be.
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Not surprisingly, marketers caught on to this fact decades ago, whether they were selling financial services or personal hygiene products. And while many marketers took a respectable approach, others went straight for the gutter.
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For example, in this 1932 advertorial, Listerine tried to make women feel like they would end up with a dog instead of a husband because of bad breath. (Image courtesy of Duke University Libraries)
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On the other hand, you’ll probably remember this legendary and hugely influential anti-drug message, which also spawned its fair share of spoofs:
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The Three Basic Steps of Fear-Based Marketing
Scientific studies have been done to evaluate various approaches to fear-based marketing, but appealing to someone’s fear typically involves three steps.
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1) Present a risk or threat that arouses fear. The risk or threat has to be realistic and severe enough to motivate your audience to act. This is why you need to do your research and know your audience instead of making assumptions.
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2) Show how vulnerable your audience is. If you try to scare someone with sensationalistic claims, you’re being manipulative. Instead, discuss the real consequences of not acting.
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3) Explain how you can protect your audience. Convince your audience that the risk reduction or threat removal is worth the effort and cost involved with using your product or service.
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This is when most marketers screw up. They revert to marketing-speak, going on and on about how wonderful their product is.
A critical part of the third step is building up your audience’s self-efficacy – the belief that they’re physically, mentally and emotionally strong enough to take action. If someone feels they can’t control their fear, they won’t act.
In other words, you’re not just selling your product as the solution. You’re empowering your audience to face and overcome their fear.
Helping People Overcome Fear to Make Positive Changes
In a previous post, I discussed the power of pain point marketing. Like pain point marketing, fear-based marketing doesn’t exploit people’s desperation. It also doesn’t have to involve a life or death situation.
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Are financial advisors being evil if they warn people of the consequences of failing to save for retirement?
Is a doctor being evil by telling people that drinking one can of soda per day can dramatically increase their chance of chronic illness? True, by the way, according to a recent study.
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There’s a big difference between persuasion and manipulation. Fear-based marketing can be a perfectly acceptable and ethical approach to marketing, as long as it’s based in reality, and especially when you use marketing to build trust and establish yourself or your company as an authority.
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When delivered powerfully yet respectfully, fear-based marketing does more than motivate people to buy products and services. It can motivate people make positive changes in their lives.
Many people tend to bury their fears and pretend they don’t exist. They allow their emotions to cloud the cold, hard facts and refuse to admit they’re afraid of anything. A fear-based marketing message can help people accept reality and face their fears.
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The Verdict
Some marketers believe any negativity is poison in marketing, and tapping into someone’s fear is the equivalent of emotional blackmail.
Unfortunately, real life isn’t all pretty flowers and rainbows. Marketing should reflect real life, complete with real fears and real problems. Imagine the sense of relief someone would feel if you empower them to overcome their fear and neutralize a genuine risk or threat.
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As marketers, we’re not being evil. We’re doing our job.
by Scott McKelvey
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Taking care of the people that take care of you can reap big rewards when showing your customers and employees that you care for and appreciate them. There is no better or more economical way to accomplish this than with an onsite social community that can be successfully accomplished in any organization.For example Lululemon produces sports apparel for women that is fashionable, environmentally friendly, and as technically advanced as sports apparel for men. The company spends virtually nothing on advertising. Instead, they build product awareness and forge ties with local communities through the community portal on their website.
They are encouraged to apply to become Lululemon ambassadors, “unique individuals … who embody the Lululemon lifestyle and live our culture.†The company now has over 200 stores, and sales soared from US $40 million to US $1.37 billion in eight years. In the US alone, sales grew 40 percent in 2012.
The following article by Michelle Killebrew, Are You Ignoring Your Best Brand Advocates?, Â tells us what empowering your employees can accomplish for your organization and the growing need to recognize all the things that they do and can do for your organization.
One reason this is such a powerful strategy is that it provides you with a way to leverage your entire customer and employee base. One of the most powerful ways to spread your message on social networks is to get customers to share news of their purchase from you. The message may be delivered on the social network, but it originates on your site. Community provides an effective mechanism on your site to encourage purchase-sharing and by showing your customer and employee centric culture.
If you limit your social strategy to the social networks, you are missing the chance to leverage Social when it will help you most. You know that many of your shoppers are also going to your competitors’ sites. Why wouldn’t you give yourself the advantage of showing those shoppers that their friends, friends of friends and neighbors shop with you?
An onsite community strategy is all about connecting you with the social networks to improve the shopping experience for your customers and the bottom line for you. To fully deliver on the value promise of social networks, the information needs to be able to flow in both directions.
William Cosgrove
Bill Cosgrove Straight Talk
Experimental Marketing; Creative Ideas from Vanity Fair and Frito Lay
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(Posted on Mar 5, 2014 at 12:55PM )
 Challenge: Customers want to be actively involved in their own brand experiences. To meet this demand companies are developing innovative experiential marketing campaigns utilizing the virtually limitless opportunities of multichannel engagement. These new strategies are giving both existing and new customers a reason to take action.Though most viewers may have been focused on the dresses and the winners pulled from those closely guarded envelopes, Vanity Fair magazine saw the Oscar Awards as an opportunity to engage its readers through an experiential event known as “the Vanity Fair Social Clubâ€. The virtual event was created to allow more than 120 bloggers and online reporters to connect with customers using the specific event hash tag. The magazine plans to use this type of experiential marketing strategy for other major events.
Vanity Fair is on the right track because today’s customers want more than traditional push marketing interactions, this according to a new report on Experiential Marketing from CrossMark and MarketingWerks.
• 88 percent of shoppers say that if they enjoy an experiential interaction with a product they’ll add it to their shopping list.
• Eighty percent said they prefer brands that “interact†with them over those that just “advertise†to them.
• Seven out of 10 shoppers say they’ll share a positive brand experience.
ERDM Voice of Customer (VoC) research has confirmed this finding. Across the last 12 months, there has been a consistent trend that has emerged from thousands of hours of research conducted for major Fortune brands;
• Today, the starting point for marketing campaigns should be to understand how your customers define high value Customer Experiences with your specific brand.
Last year when Frito Lays asked customers to “Do us a flavorâ€Â over 3.8 million people said yes in just 12 weeks with entry submissions. The goal of the campaign was to turn around a 6 year decline and connect with younger consumers. The campaign was based on insight that consumers wanted to create, share, and get recognized. So a contest was created to demonstrate to customers that their voice indeed mattered. An engagement tool from start to finish, the contest allowed customers to submit new flavors, share them on Facebook, vote on the finalists and then pick the ultimate winner by purchasing samples of the 3 finalist flavors in stores.
Through the Do Us a Flavor campaign the company achieved;
• A 1%+ increase in household penetration
• And, a 2%+ increase among millennials.
5 Takeaways:
Here are 5 strategies that Frito Lay used to keep customers engaged:
1. Understand how your customers want to structure their buying experience and the level of involvement they demand within that experience.
2. Be committed to doing the research necessary to identify engagement “unknownsâ€Â that may have been previously overlooked such as media avenues, social interaction, and in-store experiential marketing.
3. Realize that today’s multichannel consumer is in more places (often simultaneously) than ever before. Be accessible in cross media avenues.
4. Always look at what you are doing through the eyes of your customer. Let both existing customers and prospects identify with your brand. Make them feel understood.
5. Look at both your current and future audiences in order to connect with the audiences that will continue to support the brand down the road.
Author:Ernan Roman     Ernan Roman on the Web Ernan Roman RSS Feed
Ernan Roman is recognized as a Customer Experience innovator and was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame for creating three transformational methodologies: Voice of Customer Relationship Research, Integrated Direct Marketing, and Opt-in Marketing. He was also named by Crain’s B to B Magazine as one of the "100 most... View full profile
This article is an original contribution by Ernan Roman.
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Delivering marketing messages and content on mobile platforms has become essential as part of any digital marketing solution.You need to have a mobile solution that responds to all device screen sizes for optimal viewing. Some websites are recording 30-40% of all traffic from mobile devices. This should not be ignored. If you are not reaching the mobile user you are losing a lot of traffic to your website.
More than 50% of the pages for local search visits are made on mobile phones and local search is projected to surpass desktops by 2015 and increases outside the U.S. and England because a higher percentage of people who use mobile phones as their primary or only device to go online.
Mobile subscribers worldwide:
There are 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, estimates The International Telecommunication Union (February 2013). That is equivalent to 96 percent of the world population (7.1 billion according to the ITU). And is a huge increase from 6.0 billion mobile subscribers in 2011 and 5.4 billion in 2010.
 Mobile subscribers in the developed world is rapidly reaching saturation point with at least one mobile subscription per person. Mobile penetration in developed nations is around 128 percent of the population. This means market growth is being driven by demand developing world, led by rapid mobile adoption in China and India, the world's most populous nations. Mobile penetration in developing nations is around 89 percent of the population, according to the ITU.
At the end of 2012 there were 5.2 billion mobile subscriptions in the developing world (76.6 percent of global subscriptions). Mobile penetration in the developing world now is 89 percent, with Africa being the lowest region worldwide at 63 percent.
 Portio Research – in the excellent free Mobile Factbook 2013 predicts that mobile subscribers worldwide will reach 7.0 billion by the end of 2013, 7.5 billion by the end of 2014 and 8.5 billion by the end of 2016.
 Over half of the world’s mobile subscribers are in Asia Pacific. Portio estimates that Asia Pacific’s share of the mobile subscribers will rise from 51.3 percent in 2012, to 52.3 percent in 2013 and 54.3 percent in 2016. By 2016 Africa and Middle East will overtake Europe as the second largest region for mobile subscribers.
List of countries by number of mobile phones in use
Courtesy of Wikipedia
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William CosgroveBill Cosgrove Straight Talk
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Are you caught up with the most recent online marketing changes, updates and theories? Wishpond’s James Scherer, in this four-part series, will examine the most influential changes that have happened in the past six months, and how those changes affect you and your business on a daily basis.In this final installment, Scherer will discuss four strategies for getting a solid return on investment from Facebook Ads. In Part 1, Scherer looked at the rise of social media optimization. Part 2 covered Content Shock — what it is and why it matters. Part 3 examined what Facebook’s Edgerank changes mean for marketers.
Facebook Ads often get a bad rap, but they’ve been steadily improving. The average click-thru rate for Facebook Ads has jumped 275% since 2012. ROI has increased 152% in the past 18 months.
There are countless ways you can dive a little deeper into Facebook Advertising to find an ROI that works for your business. Learning the strategies below requires a bit more time and effort, but it can also open up a whole new platform for generating brand awareness, promoting your products, and even generating leads.
Here are four (somewhat advanced) strategies to get a workable ROI out of Facebook Ads:
1. Facebook Ads can be used for way more than just promotion of a sale. You can create an ad used to generate Facebook likes for your page (say, with a like-gated contest or promotion) and set the payment plan to Cost-Per-Like — meaning you pay based on how the ad performs for your brand. (Well-designed, optimized ads can have a CPL of only 30 cents!) That’s pretty cool given that Syncapse found that a Facebook like was worth, on average, $174 to brands.
2. They’re awesome for lead generation. You can target Facebook Ads so specifically that only people who have stated (in no uncertain terms) that they’re interested in your field or sector will see them and traffic through to a lead-generating landing page. My favorite way to generate leads with Facebook Ads is to promote an e-mail-gated ebook to people who have stated they are interested in that ebook’s subject. Target the ad as specifically as possible and then connect it to an optimized landing page, which discusses how the ebook can benefit its reader and provides an e-mail-gated download button.
3. Targeting by custom audience. Using this method, in which you import your business’ e-mail list into your Facebook Ad tool and find the corresponding Facebook user, means you can re-target those lapsed customers who haven’t bought from you in a few months, or reward your loyal customers with a Facebook-exclusive offer. Before you import your contact list, be sure you’ve segmented it intelligently based on your ad goals. Consider importing only your most recent merchants (past 6 months) and targeting them with an ad with copy such as “How are you liking [Your Business]? Click to get our exclusive 50% off coupon available only to loyal customers!â€
4. Targeting by lookalike audience. Available only with the Power Editor plugin, lookalike targeting finds Facebook users similar to your imported custom audience list. This means you can generate leads with all the characteristics of your existing customers – thereby dramatically increasing your ad click-through-rate. Lookalike audience targeting is effective not only based on a custom audience who have bought from you, but how about targeting Facebook users exactly like your custom audience of ebook subscribers? Your CTR can be awesome, but be aware you’ll need at least 10,000 people in your custom audience to find results!
James Scherer is a content marketer for Wishpond and author of the ebook The Complete Guide to Facebook Ads.Wishpond makes it easy to run Facebook Ads, create landing pages & contests, email automation campaigns & manage all of your business’ contacts.
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Friday February 28, 2014
There is not a more cost effective way to leverage your W.I.T.T.s  than by including an Onsite Community as part of your social and digital marketing mix and the advantages are real and the reasons all around us.There is not a more cost effective way... READ MORE
Wednesday February 26, 2014
Local area marketing gives your brand the opportunity to leverage your messages to create a solid community of loyal customers who live or work close to your market area. Local area marketing provides the best opportunity for your business to... READ MORE
Tuesday February 25, 2014
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Events anchor any business to their local community. Which is why real-time event ‘live’ media marketing that broadcasts across every online digital and traditional marketing channel can be a game changing experience.If you are planning an event...READ MOREÂ
Monday February 24, 2014
Social media marketing has changed the approach to selling today and requires a new perspective on how to attract clients. If we listen to what is happening in the marketplace today across social media channels inbound marketing offers a higher... READ MOREOne Big Broadcast News Page
I would like to step back from posting an article today to get feedback from you on how you feel about your marketing initiatives and answer questions that are important to you.This is an opportunity for you to get questions answered and get information on how you might initiate or improve on your current marketing platform and initiatives.
 We would like to hear from you about your individual needs, concerns and problems you may be experiencing in relation to your particular business.
None of us have all the answers but our experienced staff will do its best to answer your inquiries and get you the information you need to make informed decisions.
Below are some general questions we would like you to think about and add any inquiry or comment you may have in the comment section. All inquiries made are on our secure servers and held in the strictest of confidence.
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- How do you fell about the overall performance of your Marketing Department?
- Do you think there is room for improvement?
- What areas would improve if you could?
- What would you like to implement if it was cost effective for you?
I think that we might have some answers that may surprise you or you may not have thought about that can help you be more efficient and effective in a cost effective way.
Local area marketing gives your brand the opportunity to leverage your messages to create a solid community of loyal customers who live or work close to your market area.Local area marketing provides the best opportunity for your business to connect with your customer base to show them that you actively support and give back to the community and are concerned with your customers’ needs by promoting workshops on product and service related topics and by posting relevant content to educate, inform and answer questions regarding your products and services.
It’s knowing what messages to market and where to market to your customers based on local knowledge and trends; this is the key to Local Marketing that turns campaigns into success stories. A great resource for obtaining this knowledge is within your organization-your employees.
Promote your team. People like to do business with local people and be consistent, reinforce your marketing messages, have a local marketing program in addition to your stand-alone campaigns.
Advances in integrated technology has provided business the tools to directly market through their own websites. Marketing Automation allows businesses to use their site as the center for conducting all their marketing initiatives which makes your business more efficient and gives you more control over your initiatives, saves time, and reduces the need to look outside for solutions.
Part of your integrated platform solution for your site must include mobile. Fully integrated sites attract more visibility and therefore more traffic compared to using different solutions and vendors to fill your needs – And with mobile it is widely expected that in the near future, local searches will account for the bulk of all mobile searches annually. If you don’t already have a mobile solution integrated into your website's platform you’re losing ground every day.
The following article by ZOG Digital fills us in on just how important mobile is to have as part of your total marketing solution.
William Cosgrove
Bill Cosgrove Straight Talk
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Mobile: The Future Of Local Search
HOW BUSINESSES CAN INCREASE SALES WITH LOCAL AND MOBILE
The time for businesses to jump onto the mobile search bandwagon is now. Waiting, even just a few short months, will put businesses at a disadvantage that will impact future sales. Mobile use, especially when it comes to local search, is growing at an increasing pace that will force marketers to adapt and optimize in the near future.
According to a new study from Nielson, Americans spend more than 40 hours every month surfing the web, watching videos or using apps. That’s more time than they spend using any other media device, including gaming systems and desktop computers, except for live television. A study from InMobi shows that outside of the U.S. and the U.K., mobile media is even more prominent than television.
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The time for businesses to jump onto the mobile search bandwagon is now. Waiting, even just a few short months, will put businesses at a disadvantage that will impact future sales. Mobile use, especially when it comes to local search, is growing at an increasing pace that will force marketers to adapt and optimize in the near future.
According to a new study from Nielson, Americans spend more than 40 hours every month surfing the web, watching videos or using apps. That’s more time than they spend using any other media device, including gaming systems and desktop computers, except for live television. A study from InMobi shows that outside of the U.S. and the U.K., mobile media is even more prominent than television.
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The reason smartphone market penetration and mobile use is important to businesses is because of the expansive use of local search. Local search creates moment of interest connections between searchers looking for specific products or services nearby and local businesses. Overwhelmingly, those local searchers, both on mobile devices and at home, buy something from a business they found online.
Local SEO, which optimizes local search results, puts businesses in front of local consumers with the greatest possible visibility. In essence, local search helps businesses drive live foot traffic and sales by creating a digital presence that can be easily found by local searchers looking to make a purchase.
Local search via smartphones are about to outnumber local searches on desktop devices. According to research fromBIA Kelsey, mobile local search volume is on pace to intersect desktop local searches in 2015, and exceed desktop searches in 2016. One important note to remember, this projection includes both web and in-app searches.
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Local SEO, which optimizes local search results, puts businesses in front of local consumers with the greatest possible visibility. In essence, local search helps businesses drive live foot traffic and sales by creating a digital presence that can be easily found by local searchers looking to make a purchase.
Local search via smartphones are about to outnumber local searches on desktop devices. According to research fromBIA Kelsey, mobile local search volume is on pace to intersect desktop local searches in 2015, and exceed desktop searches in 2016. One important note to remember, this projection includes both web and in-app searches.
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How Businesses Can Build a Presence Using Local SEO
The advent of local search opens new opportunities for businesses to create visibility with the potential consumers that surround them on a daily basis. To create that visibility, businesses must first focus on creating a digital presence using local optimization techniques. Then, a business can tailor its digital offerings toward mobile users. By optimizing mobile offerings with content that is geared toward the usage patterns of these local searchers on the go, businesses can create greater visibility for themselves. As the number of local searchers on smartphones continues to grow, this visibility now will create exponentially higher dividends in the future.
The first thing businesses need to do to create a local digital impression is claim search engine listings and upload location data to online directories.
The three biggest search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Bing, all have their own, unique local listing opportunity for businesses. Claiming a listing on each of these sites can improve local visibility for businesses when users conduct local searches.
Online directories are important because each directory is a mention of a business, and the more mentions each specific location has, the more credibility it is given by search engines. Large data aggregators like Infogroup and Localeze will populate popular and niche directories like Citysearch and Tripadvisor. Additionally, the search engines look to these data aggregators as an influence on their own local results.
For both search engine listings and online directories it is important for businesses to complete all of the available fields with the most detailed information possible and keep that information both accurate and consistent across every platform. Small changes in addresses, phone numbers, hours of operation or anything else will cause search engines to question the accuracy of the information and potentially cause the results not to show in searches.
There are also on-site efforts businesses can take when attempting to create a greater local impression. The most common mistake businesses make is not having a separate web page for each location. Search engine crawlers see local information on individual landing pages differently than if the information is stored on a single page or in a mapping program. When spread out, search engines consider the local information to have more credibility and authority, therefore giving it more prominence in search results.
How to Optimize Digital Content for Mobile Users
Optimization for mobile includes adjustments in strategy, design and content. Mobile users, with smaller screens and no keyboards, have different needs and abilities than desktop searchers, so businesses must adjust to them instead of expecting searchers to change their habits.
Mobile strategy includes creating a unique mobile keyword strategy. Mobile searchers use different keywords when on their mobile devices compared to when they’re at home. The reason? Because they have different need, they’re searching on a smaller screen and because they don’t have a keyboard. To find the keywords that work for a specific business, marketers need to think like consumers and use the analytics already at their disposal, which may have the ability to break down what search terms mobile users use to find a specific site.
One way businesses can adapt their digital offerings for mobile devices is by updating their website to an adaptive design. Adaptive websites automatically adjust based on a user’s screen. 72 percent  of consumers expect brands to have mobile-friendly sites. As new devices sizes are unveiled and tablet popularity increases, this will hold true for all screen sizes. Look into responsive design today to begin optimizing your multi-screen digital presence.
Consumers desire different content when on the go compared to when they’re at home. Businesses should focus on what their local consumers want, and create mobile content that caters to them, which may include easy to use location finders, searchable product information, consumer reviews or simple basic information about hours of operation and pricing. The key is to provide what consumers demand.
Together, adjustments in strategy, design and content will create a richer and more valuable experience for mobile users. Search engines recognize this, and give prominence to businesses that optimize for mobile over businesses that done.
Conclusion
In less than two years, local searches and mobile devices are expected to outnumber local searches on desktop devices. Local searches, specifically those using a mobile device, convert into in-store sales at a high rate. Therefore, businesses should be actively working to gain visibility with these local searchers on mobile devices. To do that, businesses must optimize for both mobile and local SEO. Businesses that neglect either mobile or local, or both, will be at a disadvantage compared to competitors that are already optimizing their mobile offerings.
