Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media [Infographic]
Feb 6th
It’s undeniable that small businesses today benefit greatly from the use of social media sites. Whether for promoting their enterprise, reaching out to clients and responding to queries from customers, regular networking efforts on social media indeed has its rewards.
A big chunk of entrepreneurs using Facebook, Twitter and so on belong to the small business industry. It should be noted, however, that even the Fortune 500 companies are also taking advantage of these sites.
Apart from the real time communication that the sites offer, it’s absolutely free to promote a business and keep in touch with customers. One does not need to have technical skills to be able to manage a social media account and this ease of using the sites is what primarily attracts business owners to use them.
Below we share an infographic design from Infographic Labs showing the latest studies and surveys on how businesses are using and benefiting from the top social networking sites. Recent figures tell only one thing – entrepreneurs regardless of the field they’re in will continue to tap social media for their marketing campaigns.
View full post on Business Pundit
BrandMyMail, A New Way To Integrate Social Media & Email
Jan 25th
If you’re looking to take your email and social media activity one step further, you’ll want to check out a new startup called BrandMyMail.com which helps small- and medium-sized businesses integrate their social media presence into the emails they’re sending out to customers.
Intrigued? I was.
BrandMyMail is a new startup that helps business owners ramp up their email by allowing them to build customized templates that include hand-selected segments of their social media presence. Operating through a simple browser extension, BrandMyMail is able to pull the content sources in and include them as part of your messages. Right now that gives SMBs the ability to include Facebook statuses, Twitter feeds, video and photo content from YouTube and Flickr, blog posts from services including WordPress and Tumblr, and eBay content listing the user’s available products directly into the messaging they’re sending to customers.
I took a few minutes to set it up on my personal Gmail account and must admit the process is really easy and creates a very clean template to work from. Here’s a sample template of what the integration could look like:
You’ll notice the content above, a dynamic email signature below, and Twitter and Facebook links on the right-hand side. For a small business owner, this is an interesting application for a couple of reasons.
First, we’re always looking for relevant ways to tie our social media presence into everything else that we’re doing. If you’re spending time working on those social media resolutions, you want to make sure your customers are aware of what you’re doing. You want them to see your tweets, your Facebook updates, what’s new on your blog, what videos you just uploaded, etc. Including this type of content in your messaging gives them something else to interact with and exposes all the different elements of your brand. This is a great way to get it all done in one step.
I also like that SMBs are able to create a variety of templates. For example, if you’re responding to a customer service issues, maybe you want to make sure your YouTube videos are included in the messages so that your customers can see the tutorials you have available and you can even direct them there in your email. Or if you’re sending out an email newsletter, maybe you want to highlight your Facebook feed or make sure they see the products you just uploaded to eBay. This extension gives you the ability to target content based on the message.
Another reason I’m interested in this extension is because it makes your email more interactive. Google allows for some of what BrandMyMail does, but it only pulls in static information. BrandMyMail takes that one step further by almost making your email real-time and syncing your social media activity. And because you get to pick which activity is included, you get to craft a stronger message. I like that.
Right now BrandMyMail works with your Gmail through Chrome or FireFox extensions, as well as iPads and iPhones. Integration into other clients [Hotmail, AOL, Android] are reportedly forthcoming, so keep your eye out for that if you’re nor a Gmail user.
What do you think? Would you use a browser extension like BrandMyMail?
BrandMyMail, A New Way To Integrate Social Media & Email
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Cory Hartlen of Radian6: We Listen to Social Media
Jan 20th
Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? Are you even listening? In today’s technological age, there’s a lot of “noise.” Becoming an effective listener is a skill that needs to be honed and actually being an effective listener is a skill that can be capitalized on in business, especially when it comes to social media. Listening closely to what’s happening around your brand and products in real time can be crucial to the success of your social media strategy.
Cory Hartlen of Radian6, a site that listens, tracks and monitors social media conversations so that businesses can successfully employ a social media strategy, joins Brent Leary to discuss why it’s so important to listen.
* * * * *
Small Business Trends: Before we jump in, maybe you can tell us a little bit about yourself?
Cory Hartlen: I came into social media, into Radian6, in a really round about way. I spent 10 years in the food and beverage business and I was managing bars and restaurants. I even waited tables and bartended. For a little while, I started my own stand up career and toured around Canada. When I got to be closer to age 30, I decided it was time to put down some roots and began a career in financial planning.
Then in October of 200,8 after the market crashed, I wanted to find something a little bit more stable and was more than happy to go through the interview process at Radian6. It has been the best decision I ever made.
Small Business Trends: How are companies looking at social media monitoring in 2012?
Cory Hartlen: I think the industry has really grown up in the last two or three years and it’s starting to come into its own. The people leading the industry have been doing it from the early days. You have Dell, Pepsi and Microsoft. They’ve been doing it very well. And then there are the people that are now getting into it. So we do see there is a fragmented gap.
The people that have been doing it for a while are trying to figure out ways in which they can infuse social data and social media intelligence through the organization. The others start with marketing, PR or corporate communications, and do some testing and develop some strategies to figure out ways to measure the effectiveness. As it starts to grow, we really see where social media flows though the organizations. So it does not just live in marketing anymore.
Small Business Trends: How do you see listening impacting areas of business?
Cory Hartlen: One of the neatest stories that I’ve heard the last few months is in HR. Being able to listen for all brand mentions of people that have graduated with their MBA, or are looking forward to graduating with their MBA, and then seeing inside of those conversations what topics are coming to the top. Especially when people are saying that they are looking for jobs or applying for jobs.
We have had a few clients who have had success in being able to find potential candidates for their junior executive training programs. Instead of being able to rely on more traditional avenues for that, where there have been recruiters or headhunters, they are able to use social listening to help reduce some of those costs.
Small Business Trends: What are some of the skills we need to hone in order to become an effective listener?
Cory Hartlen: To become a good listener is really about having a process to get that information in the hands of people that can use it and act on it. It’s not just about how to listen, but to have a good team together that can act and capitalize on these opportunities that come from that listening program.
Small Business Trends: What are some of the ways that companies are able to quantify the importance of listening today?
Cory Hartlen: We listen to social conversations so that when people reach out to their social networks and ask for advice, then maybe we can lend a hand and share a link to our review of monitoring systems. Those conversations are very measurable because we can figure out how many leads we are getting from the social space over a given time period and get those input into our system. Then we actually see how many of those we are able to close on over a given time period to get our own ROI from a program like that.
There are other ways that the customer service team can deliver better customer service by meeting people at the point of need in these social spaces. We have heard some new numbers that have come out on increasing the rate on one touch closes. The reduction in average time per resolution and the reduction in cost per resolutions as well.
Small Business Trends: Are there certain areas that people still have not really adjusted well to in terms of leveraging listening?
Cory Hartlen: Well I think it comes down to measurement. People may be listening to the right conversations, but they might not be using that data effectively. Maybe PR and marketing are doing some listening, but are those two departments sharing that social intelligence across their departments or across the departments that can use it? I still see that information being housed inside of the individual department and I think that can be a little counterproductive because you get a duplication of efforts.
Small Business Trends: What are the top two or three things needed in order to get the most out of listening in 2012 and beyond?
Cory Hartlen: I think that it all comes down to goals and strategy. I always say that the phone is just a phone – without a plan social media is no different. People always ask about the ROI of social media. I could very easily ask you what the ROI of my telephone is. But without a goal and a measurable strategy, I am really left in the dark. But if I decide to make three more sales this month, then I know that I need to make X number of phone calls to be able to close that number of sales. So now I have a goal and a strategy which can be measured to prove my success. I think that social media is no different.
Small Business Trends: Cory where can people learn more about Radian6?
Cory Hartlen: Radian6.com. We are also on Twitter @Radian6, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.
Cory Hartlen of Radian6: We Listen to Social Media
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Is Social Media the New Small Business PR?
Jan 18th
We hear a lot these days about the importance of social media in small business success. But how can social media be used most effectively in your small business? We look at the answer to that question and much more in this Small Business Trends roundup. Enjoy!
Social Media
Social media: the new PR? Well, maybe. But the fact is that social media is many things to many different practitioners. There are certainly some no-no’s in terms of business use of social media, but more important is learning how the tool works best for you. FixCourse
How much does it cost? What if you had to pay $20 every time you appeared on social media? You don’t, of course, but it’s a helpful exercise when thinking about how much social media marketing really costs and how much time you devote to it. M4B Marketing
SEO
Google rating stars. If you’re developing an online presence this is probably something you should know. Here’s more on the Google rating star, what it is and how to use it in your online marketing efforts. Don’t Do It Yourself
Why your online presence needs video. Online video is more than simply a popular medium that attracts and entertains visitors. It is a powerful Search Engine Optimization tool that will help your Website rank better with Google and the other search engines than it might hope to do otherwise. Step By Step Marketing
Management
A non-boring approach to cash flow projections. Don’t panic! This cash flow projection discussion will not put you to sleep. Like it or not, cash is still king and understanding cash flow is the key to keeping your business afloat. Leap TV
Mastering the five C’s. What if there were a simple little formula out there that made success in small business easy. Well there is…sort of…and getting the hang of this simple little five step approach can be the first step in improving your business success. Open Forum
Sales
The basics of cold calling. You may have heard that cold calling is dead, but it remains a quick and simple method of getting a customer interested, if done right. Here’s how to approach the simplest tool in your sales arsenal. Inc.com
Success Stories
From jobless to self-employed. There are many stories coming out of the troubled economy about people deciding to take their destiny into their own hands and following a dream to create a business. This is another inspiring example of determination that paid off. CNN Small Business
More Tips
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. One way to keep your momentum going after the beginning of the year is with some reminders. You might be surprised how much this tip can help you stay focused not just now but throughout the year. The Solopreneur Life
Expert or entrepreneur? You’ve probably heard it said that part of personal branding for entrepreneurs is to establish yourself as an expert in your field. But is an expert necessarily an entrepreneur or are there differences to be considered? Into which category do you fit? Small Business Trends
Is Social Media the New Small Business PR?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
How to Sell Anything Using Social Media
Jan 5th
How to Sell Anything Using Social Media
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
One of my predictions for 2012 is that more people will come to understand that you can indeed do business using social networks and, frankly, I’m already seeing it.
There are couple reasons this.
First off, people are getting more comfortable with social media and social behavior and the “social media is a pure engagement temple mentality” of some early adopters has faded.
More importantly, however, is that smart marketers are testing, tweaking and trying lots of things and figuring out how to build know, like and trust – the path to selling anything, anywhere – on social networks.
In my own experimenting I can tell you that generating and converting leads using social media takes a more patient approach, but once you find the right path, it’s actually a better way to sell in any environment.
The reason I see many people’s social media marketing efforts fail is that they are still simply broadcasting sales messages. This approach still works to some degree in an advertising setting because people often stumble upon your ads with a buying intent. It still works to some degree in email marketing efforts because people have asked to get your messages and you can easily earn the right to sell in that relationship.
However, most people don’t participate in social networks to shop so any sales message can feel sort of harsh and in the snack sized, feverish world of tweets, shares and likes any and all messages are very easy to ignore.
If you want to sell using social media, here’s one path:
Test your message
Using 140 characters or less to basically write an ad that makes people want to retweet and click isn’t something most people can muster in real time – and yet, that’s what most try to do.
I’ve had tremendous success using Google AdWords to test very compact messages. Once I find a message that draws clicks there, I know I’ve got a winner that will get action in the form of a tweet or share.
This somewhat scientific approach is one of the most overlooked aspects of marketing in social media and it’s the primary reason people that contend you can’t sell there say so.
Target your message
Here’s another proven technique that seems lost on many marketers. Just because there are 800 million people on Facebook doesn’t mean you need to appeal to all of them.
The quickest way to get the right kind of attention is to announce “hey you 437 people that need to get better at X” I’m talking to you.
If you want to learn more about the impact of using data to form your social media messages look no further than the work Dan Zarrella is doing.
Prove your worth
It’s nearly impossible to get someone ready to buy simply by crafting a mouth-watering tweet. There’s just not enough information to develop trust.
You must make your initial relationship building all about valuable content. Give something away that you know your targeted prospect wants and needs. Move the free line to the point where your free stuff is better than most other people’s paid stuff and watch how enamored people get.
Here again, there’s nothing new about this. For years, smart marketers made tiny little inexpensive classified ads in the back of magazines like Popular Mechanics pay off nicely using this exact approach.
Engage
Now, here’s a step that just might be unique to social media and online marketing in general and it’s a very powerful one.
In the process of giving away all that great information ask your prospects to tell you things, share things, rate things and help you make the world a better place for all who inhabit it.
Seriously, create feedback forms and make that part of the deal for why you are giving away such great stuff. Socialize your content and make it easy to email, tweet and like. Send a series of emails during your content sharing phase that reinforces the important takeaways from the content and offers more engagement like email support or live Q and A sessions.
Ask for the order
Once you’ve done all this work and logically and authentically led a prospect to the place where they do indeed have some level of trust, it’s time to tell them where this journey is ultimately headed.
Paint the picture you know exists in their “current reality”, remind them of the incredible glimpse you’ve shared and then illustrate what the picture could look like.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming they will connect the dots – show them how to get the value you know you have to offer and be extremely clear about it. One of the benefits of this approach is that, if you do it right and they still don’t buy, you’ll earn the right to ask why and they’ll gladly help you understand how to get it right.
There’s nothing that magical about this approach really. Marketers have been using some form of these elements for years, but it’s the total package, including patience and hard work, that makes it pay off in the world of social media.
View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
10 Social Media Resolutions for 2012
Jan 4th
The 2012 business year officially starts today. With the mini-breaks and shortened weeks gone, all that’s left to do is tackle that To-Do list that’s twice the length of your arm once and for all. If you need help figuring out where to start or what habits to pick up in social media this year, below are 10 social media resolutions every small business owner would be smart to make.
We’ll start slow.
1. Claim everything: Your brand is your identity in business. If you haven’t already taken the steps to protect it and claim your username throughout the Web, start the year off by doing just that. Knowem is a fantastic service that allows you to easily search and claim more than 550 popular social networking sites at little cost. Even if you don’t plan on using all 500 (or even five) of these sites, protecting your username will ensure that you’re able to use them in the future should you change your mind AND that no one else can hijack your brand’s identity and speak to your customers. It’s your first step to social media success.
2. Pick two social media sites and focus on them: Just because Knowem allows you to claim more than 500 social media profiles, doesn’t mean you have to use all of them. Instead, focus on 2-3 social media sites, sites where you know your audience is and that may already be delivering traffic, and really invest in devoting time there. For example, maybe you’ve found that you get a lot of traffic from Yelp. Why not invest more in that site by optimizing your Yelp profile, using their analytics, and taking advantage of their specials? Instead of worrying about being everywhere, focus on developing a strong presence where it counts for your business. Once you get the hang of those first two sites, you can spread your wings to some of the others.
3. Build ears: Before you really engage, work on building your ears. Listening in social media will help you identify the people you want to be talking to, the conversations worth your time, and may just prevent you from royally putting your foot in your mouth. If you need help, iGoogle can help you build a free social media dashboard or check out a service like Trackur which has cost-effective plans to help SMBs stay in the loop.
4. Agree to schedule social media into your day: If 2012 is the year you’re finally going to get serious about social media, then you really need to get serious about it. And you do that by scheduling social media into your day the same way you schedule all of your other tasks. Because that’s the only way it’s going to get done. Find a way to dedicate 30 minutes a day into updating Twitter, responding to people on Facebook or commenting on industry blogs. If you don’t schedule it, you won’t do it. It’s as simple as that.
5. Increase your online reviews: When I broke down my 5 Internet Marketing Trends for SMBs to Watch in 2012, I talked about online reviews as becoming an increasingly important social signal for the search engines. The engines are looking at reviews to help bring accountability back to the Web and, frankly, so are users. Creating a full-on online review strategy may sound intimidating, but all it really means is is encouraging your customers to talk about their experiences on the sites you want them to do the talking on. That’s nothing to be shy over. Use your Web site, your emails, your newsletter, you advertisements, and your face-to-face interactions to help them do that.
6. Blog more: Hey, I know. Sometimes it can be hard to find the time or the motivation to blog. We’ve already helped spark some blogging inspiration, now it’s time for you to dedicate the time to doing it. Even if you’re just blogging a couple times a week, it’s going to help you build a community, have something to always share with your audience, and help you in search. If you’ve been putting it off or not blogging as often as you should, 2012 is the year to fix that.
7. Read other blogs: A great way to always have something to say and blog about it is to keep up with what others are saying. Use Twitter or Google Blog Search to help you identify authoritative (or at least interesting) blogs in your space that you can use as conversation starters and as a way to stay up to date on what’s happening in your corner of the world.
8. Attend a tweetup: Do something crazy this year and leave your office. Go find out where people who do what you do are meeting and join them. Talk to them. Share with them. Online interaction can only go so far before you have to take it offline.
9. Find ways to reward fans with social media exclusives: It’s not enough to simply BE in social media. You have find ways to reward fans and give them “the why” for why it is they should like you, follow you, talk to you. Fifty-eight percent of users expect exclusive content or discounts for “liking” a brand on Facebook. That’s pretty significant. So if you’re not using your social media presence to reward customers for their interaction with you, you’re letting them down.
10. Promote your social media accounts: Have you read the nine previous resolutions? There’s some work involved there. And if you’re going to be putting in the blood, sweat and tears needed to create a powerful social presence, then you darn well better be promoting these accounts at every turn. That means making them visible on your Web site, putting their logos on your customer receipts, highlighting them in your email newsletters and on business cards, and linking to them wherever you can. Don’t hide your social media. Flaunt it.
Above are ten social media resolutions I think all SMBs would be smart to make this year. What’s your biggest social media goal for 2012? How are you making it happen?
10 Social Media Resolutions for 2012
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Read The End of Business as Usual for Social Media Insights, Research and Trends
Dec 31st
At the end of each year and into the beginning of the next, we take stock of where we’ve been and where we are about to go. TV shows and magazines look back on the significant events of the year, and then prognosticators predict what’s yet to come.
One of the best prognosticators out there (although he may not take to being called that) is Brian Solis (@briansolis). In 2010 he wrote the book Engage, which leads you through the specific steps you need to take to conceptualize, implement, manage and measure a social media program.
I had the privilege of interviewing Brian Solis for an article I wrote for Personal Branding Magazine. In some ways, he reminded me of Matthew Broderick’s character Ferris Bueller; fun, smart and super-savvy about the ways of the social media environment and how to play it. Solis knows how to navigate, pull the technological strings and use these tools to business advantage.
But wait, there’s more
And new for 2012, Solis has released The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution. This book takes you to the next level, taking social media away from the context of tool and into the context of strategy. Let me put it another way: We don’t write about telephones or microwaves or stoves as revolutionary tools for communication or cooking. We’ve integrated these items into our lives. Business as Usual does the same thing for us in terms of social media. Solis is taking the tools and technologies we’ve been enamored with and pushing us into accepting them as tangible, real and unimportant as tools, but vitally important in terms of what we do with them.
The End of Business as Usual is a bellwether
If you like Groundswell, then you will love this. This is a business book, a social media book and a trend book all in one. It’s 20 chapters and 300 pages of lesson after lesson, insight after insight, and terrific charts and graphics that give you a perspective on what Solis is talking about.
There are so many facts and figures in this book relating to what’s going on in social media that you could probably tweet out a stat every day and have enough to last you a couple of years. I’m not sure if I’m exaggerating, but I think I’m pretty close.
Here are just a few chapter names that will give you some idea of what to expect:
Chapter 3: The medium is no longer the message. This is the core message of the book. People are spending more time on social networks, TV shows are live tweeted, news comes from Twitter online video networks – in other words, social is as integrated into our lives as phones and appliances.
Chapter 4: Attention deficit crises and information scarcity: This chapter addresses one of the key reasons I admire Brian Solis: “If you don’t have anything interesting or productive to say – then don’t say it.” While Solis is a social media expert and evangelist, I respect his integrity in terms of using social media as a valuable communication channel rather than a vehicle for pabulum.
Chapter 7: Your audience is now an audience of audiences with audiences: This chapter has terrific visuals and charts to show you exactly how communication and information functions in the social media world. This chapter is worth reading and rereading.
Chapter 11: The rise of connected commerce: You’ve already heard the phrase “blurring the line between personal and business. This chapter gives you the background on how and why this is happening. Mobile devices, constant connection and communication will force business to look and feel more personal.
Chapter 14: Reinventing the brand and sales cycle for a new genre of connecter commerce: The message in this chapter is to plug into decision making. We’ve never had better access to data about our customers’ behavior. Businesses will have to become masters at managing their brand promises.
Who should read this book?
To say that anyone who intends to be in business over the next three to five years should read this book is an understatement. Business owners will see data and research that will help them create a context for the world that they and their customers are participating in.
Sales and marketing professionals will get insights and be able to develop much more powerful marketing strategies that get to the heart of what’s important to their customers.
Social media practitioners will have evidence and resources to share with their clients that will show exactly why the strategies they are proposing will work.
At the risk of sounding over the top, The End of Business as Usual is a book you absolutely, positively must read to succeed in 2012 and beyond.
Read The End of Business as Usual for Social Media Insights, Research and Trends
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Vertical Response Acquires Social Media Platform Roost
Dec 15th
Vertical Response, known for its email marketing system that serves over 100,000 customers (many of them small businesses), just announced that it has acquired the Roost social media tool.
Roost, based in San Francisco, allows you to update your social media accounts (currently Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) from one dashboard. There’s a built-in calendar to schedule and publish updates in advance.
While there are other tools out there that do similar functions, what’s interesting about Roost is that you can schedule social media updates like marketing campaigns. In a campaign, you can schedule updates to go out over a specified period of time — up to 40 updates over a period of 30 days. So, for instance, if you wanted to promote a special offer with a series of informational tweets and also discounts, you could set that up in Roost.
Roost also gives you some analytics about your social media impact. For instance you can measure engagement with your social media updates. You can also see where your Facebook fans are located geographically, as well as some other features. Roost announced its analytics features a few months ago.
Back in August of 2011, we did a review of Roost. At that time, Roost reported that it had a customer base of 30,000 small businesses. TJ McCue, who conducted the review for Small Business Trends, wrote what he liked about Roost, noting:
- I liked that Roost summarized my audience for me. I could see… where my fans/followers are located. Yes, I can do some of that in Facebook, but it is not easy, so I was glad to have Roost do it for me.
- On a busy day, you could pick from a list of links and Web stories that might appeal to your audience from already popular online media destinations. Roost pulls in a feed from each of the Web’s most popular sources and allows you to choose a story, and then post a comment about it (just like when you click the share or like button and comment from the Web).
The product still offers a free version, along with a premium plan that appears to target real estate businesses. As of this morning, you do not have to be a user of Vertical Response to get value from Roost. You can still use Roost as a stand alone tool.
There’s no mystery why an email marketing system provider would purchase a social media tool. For too long now, email marketing and social media marketing have been separate. But when you think about it, a company is losing out on opportunities to better understand and serve its target audience when the two activities are siloed. According to Janine Popick, CEO of Vertical Response:
“We look at social media as the perfect complement to email marketing. If you take a specific example, a small business more often than not has historically built their customer base and much of their business around a customer’s email address, which they’ve likely been emailing for quite some time. Now they’re using a new channel to communicate with some of these people who get their email offers and others who prefer to hear from the business through social channels.
With the acquisition of Roost, we’re looking to finally combine what our small businesses and non profits are doing on multiple sites under one roof. Sending email marketing campaigns, extending those campaigns to their social networks, and the ability to publish single posts or full social campaigns will make the marketing life of our customers simpler and save them time.”
Vertical Response, also headquartered in San Francisco, has been adding tools to its stable. It added an event marketing tool, and before that a survey tool.
Vertical Response Acquires Social Media Platform Roost
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
SMBs Up Email Marketing, Social Media Spend
Dec 14th
Last week StrongMail released the results of its 2012 Marketing Trends survey [PDF] and gave us all a quick glimpse into where marketers are looking to spend their marketing dollars in the upcoming year. Four areas were highlighted as the biggest points demanding more attention and dollars in 2012. What were they, you ask?
- 60 percent of respondents will raise email marketing budgets.
- 54 percent will invest more in social media.
- 37 percent will increase mobile and search budgets.
If you’re a loyal reader of Small Business Trends, seeing those four take top honors probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. They’re four of the areas we talk about most here on the site. Glad to see we’re on to something.
Something else that didn’t come as a surprise: seeing small business marketers investing more dollars in email marketing campaigns than in social media campaigns. Because email is still easier for most SMBs to understand, track and associate ROI to, it is an investment they’re more comfortable with.
When it comes to the types of email marketing campaigns SMBs are looking to invest in, 44 percent said they would increase batch promotional programs, 39 percent will increase newsletters and 35 percent will spend more on lifestyle programs.
Interestingly, it seems SMBs are looking to combine their two favorite marketing programs, with an impressive 68 percent of respondents saying they will look to further integrate their social media marketing directly into their email programs to increase their bang for their buck. As we often refer to social media and email as marketing’s Batman and Robin (read that post for tips on how to integrate them), it’s encouraging to see SMBs looking for ways to use them together. It’s a sign that SMBs are moving attention and dollars in the right direction, combining what’s always worked with newer marketing options.
What are SMBs looking to get from their email marketing efforts? Topping SMB goals are:
- 48 percent: increasing subscriber engagement
- 44 percent: increasing segmentation and targeting
- 32 percent: increasing email opt-ins (subscribers)
Of course it won’t be all email marketing in 2012. When it comes to social media, 39 percent of small business owners will be looking to strengthen their Facebook campaigns, 25 percent will focus on going viral and social media management technology, and 24 percent will increase their Twitter marketing.
One area that won’t be getting as much attention as I would have imagined is mobile. Only 37 percent of respondents will increase their mobile spend, with 29 percent saying they’ll look to invest in apps.
Overall, StrongMail’s survey of 939 executives gives us a good look at some of the areas that will see the largest investment in 2012. It is worth noting that, according to the survey, an overwhelming 92 percent of businesses plan to increase or maintain their marketing spend in 2012. So there are no shrinking budgets here. Business owners understand that the way to increase profitability is to build awareness, be present and go after the customers they want to sell to.
What do you think of the StrongMail survey results? Does it mirror how you’ll be spending your marketing dollars or are you skeptical of their data?
Sound off in the comments.
SMBs Up Email Marketing, Social Media Spend
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
The trap of social media noise
Dec 11th
If we put a number on it, people will try to make the number go up.
Now that everyone is a marketer, many people are looking for a louder megaphone, a chance to talk about their work, their career, their product… and social media looks like the ideal soapbox, a free opportunity to shout to the masses.
But first, we’re told to make that number go up. Increase the number of fans, friends and followers, so your shouts will be heard. The problem of course is that more noise is not better noise.
In Corey’s words, the conventional, broken wisdom is:
- Follow a ton of people to get people to follow back
- Focus on the # of followers, not the interests of followers or your relationship with them.
- Pump links through the social platform (take your pick, or do them all!)
- Offer nothing of value, and no context. This is a megaphone, not a telephone.
- Think you’re winning, because you’re playing video games (highest follower count wins!)
This looks like winning (the numbers are going up!), but it’s actually a double-edged form of losing. First, you’re polluting a powerful space, turning signals into noise and bringing down the level of discourse for everyone. And second, you’re wasting your time when you could be building a tribe instead, could be earning permission, could be creating a channel where your voice is actually welcomed.
Leadership (even idea leadership) scares many people, because it requires you to own your words, to do work that matters. The alternative is to be a junk dealer.
The game theory pushes us into one of two directions: either be better at pump and dump than anyone else, get your numbers into the millions, outmass those that choose to use mass and always dance at the edge of spam (in which the number of those you offend or turn off forever keep increasing), or
Relentlessly focus. Prune your message and your list and build a reputation that’s worth owning and an audience that cares.
Only one of these strategies builds an asset of value.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
