Splash Omnimedia Blog:

If you’re ready to make the leap, it’s best to start with a social media marketing plan.

Social media marketing is all fun and games until someone gets hurt. It seems easy enough – make a page or profile for your business, slap up some images, bug some of your friends into “liking” or “following” your page, and the money will come rolling in, right?

Well, it’s more complicated than that. If you’ve tried a do-it-yourself social media marketing plan, you already know it looks easier than it is. If you haven’t jumped into social media for your business, your hesitation is probably built on a well-founded suspicion that there’s more to it than meets the eye.

You’ve probably got a host of questions:

• What would you write for status updates?
• How do you keep it professional?
• How will you find the time to do this regularly?
• How often will you need to post?
• How can you get your friends and followers to engage with you on social media?
• How can all of this turn into more business for your business?

Today being Leap Day, maybe it’s time to reconsider your resistance to social media marketing. If you’d like an expert to help you create a social media marketing plan that really works, contact Splash right now.

Mesh your email marketing strategy with a commitment to providing value, and your customers will love hearing from you.

 

By now all that’s left in your heart-shaped box of chocolates from Valentine’s Day is the apricot crème. No matter, February is still the month we dedicate to love, and nothing says love like a solid email marketing strategy.

Unfortunately, sometimes nothing says email marketing strategy like a can of spam, or, only slightly less horrible, a trash bin. Despite declining open rates, email marketing is still an important tactic for any business to include in its marketing strategy. The trick is getting your recipients to look forward to getting your emails.

That’s easy to do – if you aim to provide value in every email you send. Include helpful information, practical tips, and useful advice your readers need, rather than purely promotional verbiage. By giving your email recipients what they want and need, they’re more likely to open, read, and act on your messages.

An effective email marketing strategy covers all the bases – from the nature of the content you create and send, to the software you use to send your messages, and even the day and time your messages are sent.

Request a proposal for creating and implementing a powerful email marketing strategy for your business now.

The 21^st century is the age of hype – every day there is a new tool that some expert is saying businesses can’t live without.  But when all of the hype is worn down from time and unfulfilled predictions, what tools are actually worth using and devoting effort towards?  LinkedIn is one of those tools that has weathered the storm of exaggeration and still stands on its own as a powerful platform for networking and marketing.

 

5 Benefits of LinkedIn

So if LinkedIn is such a powerful platform, in what ways can it help YOUR business today?  Below are 5 benefits of utilizing LinkedIn for growing business and improving brand awareness.

 

1. Network and build relationships – One of the age old business practices that is still as relevant today as it was a hundred years ago is effective networking.  Businesses offer products and services, but they only succeed when they build mutually beneficial relationships and trust.  LinkedIn has simply built a platform that allows people and businesses to do what they’ve always done – network – but with much greater efficiency due to technology.  Make sure to have all employees sign up on LinkedIn and attach their profile to the company profile.
2. Establish your business as a thought leader – The internet has given rise to the information age where everyone can find just about anything they need on the internet.  When potential clients and consumers are doing their research on your industry, the internet is the first place that they go.  LinkedIn offers many tools for businesses to establish thought leadership like status updates, applications to include your blog, a Q and A forum for experts to provide useful answers, and groups for discussion on industry topics.
3. Promote your business and generate leads – In addition to a highly targeted advertising platform like Google’s adwords, LinkedIn provides many ways to promote a business.  Company pages allow for products and services that can be individually recommended by happy clients, giving them an extra boost of confidence and trust for potential clients who come across your page.  Also, LinkedIn pushes top stories to the home page of personal profiles which gives your business a chance to become an authority on a subject with huge exposure.
4. Hiring on Linkedin: Find more qualified applicants – Finding and hiring talent with the right fit for your company’s culture can be expensive and time-consuming.  LinkedIn provides a trustworthy hiring platform that exceeds all others like monster.com, simplyhired.com, and indeed.com.  What is the difference?  On LinkedIn, businesses and potential employees alike are able to see established profiles (with pictures, recommendations, job history, and other professional information) that let both parties know the job posting and applicant are real.
5. Measure, analyze, and improve – In business, knowing how well certain efforts perform in terms of return on investment or even just interactions can be hard to measure.  LinkedIn has its own analytics system which shows you page views, unique visitors, industry comparisons, and other useful metrics.  Whether you just posted a new status on LinkedIn or started an ad campaign, it is easy to tell how effective the efforts were based on company profile traffic as well as website traffic referred from LinkedIn.

Social media marketing with LinkedIn is one of the easiest and fastest ways to see measurable results for growing with new business – and the best part is you can do it yourself! What are you waiting for?  Get on LinkedIn and start networking your business today.

There are so many different synonyms and buzzwords in online marketing that knowing what is what can be difficult.  This glossary is designed for the layperson who is considering an investment in online marketing.

 

• Search Engine Marketing – Also known as SEM, search engine marketing is the broad category of gaining exposure and traffic through search engines with advertisements and organic search.
• Search Engine Optimization – Also known as SEO, search engine optimization is a part of SEM that focuses on generating local and organic traffic as opposed to paid traffic.
• Pay Per Click – Also known as PPC, pay per click advertising is a type of SEM that focuses on paying for advertising space on search engines based on target keywords.
• Keywords - Sounds simple enough, but keywords in online marketing refer to the words that people use to search for products, services, and answers.
• Social Media Marketing – Also known as SMM, social media marketing is leveraging social platforms like facebook, digg, twitter, linkedin, and many others to promote brand awareness and improve customer relationships.
• Viral Marketing – Viral marketing has always existed as word of mouth marketing but has taken on a new face with the rise of the internet.  The internet and social media specifically have provided great platforms to spread word of mouth like never before.
• Inbound Marketing – Inbound marketing is another term for online marketing that is used to differentiate between traditional tactics like direct mail and contemporary tactics like SMM, SEO, and PPC.  The main difference is that instead of ‘pushing’ your message onto potential customers, inbound marketing focuses on showing up exactly where customers are already looking for your type of business.
• Content Marketing – Content marketing refers to creating useful infographics, white papers, blogs, and other types of content in order to establish your company as a “thought-leader” in your industry.
• Linkbuilding – Linkbuilding is one of the most important factors that search engines consider when ranking a website.  It is the act of creating a network of links online from reputable and relevant sites in your industry to boost search engine rankings.
• Linkbaiting – Linkbaiting is kind of a hybrid between linkbuilding and content marketing.  It is the practice of creating content or resources that other people will link to.  Great content, with the right promotion, can generate a ton of links and boost search engine rankings.
• SERPs – SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page and is used commonly to determine the success of an SEO campaign.

While this is not an exhaustive list of online marketing terms, it is a good start to get an idea of the many tactics and strategies used to promote a business online.  Contact us today for a free marketing proposal on how we can help improve your bottom line. 

Marketing trends have been changing, the use of video marketing and corporate videos has been increasing.  Video is everywhere online. They are appearing on websites, social media sites and countless other venues. Many businesses are beginning to use video marketing and corporate videos to increase their online presence. If you are not using video marketing and corporate videos to market your business on the web, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to increase your advertising audience.

It seems that everyone today has a video on YouTube, do you? Do you have video on your website? By placing a video on your website, you increase the possibility of visitors remembering you and what your products or services are.  It is a proven fact that people remember more of what they see and hear together than what they read. In addition to video on your website, you should consider video marketing on some of the social networking sites. There is an entire market of consumers online who are surfing the web looking for products and services. Video marketing and corporate videos will help put  you in front of that market.

Video marketing and corporate videos are a great way to brand your business. Many companies are creating corporate videos to not only market to the consumer, but to market to potential employees as well. A corporate video can help build name recognition with the online community. When a consumer sees a video with the faces and voices of the people behind the company, they are quicker to identify with the company. Corporate videos will also help you educate the consumers about your products or services. In addition to marketing, corporate videos are a great resource for trainings and educating new employees about your company’s mission and policies.

Using video and audio will allow you to connect with your consumers in an entirely different way. With video and audio, consumers will be able to distinguish the excitement and enthusiasm in your voice. With print ads, there is no excitement in reading the words. Video marketing allows you to bring the excitement to the consumer.

There is fierce competition in the marketplace today. You need to be creative with your marketing in order to set your business apart from the others. Video marketing and corporate videos are a great way to increase your exposure online which will help to  increase your business.  Contact us today for a free marketing proposal on how we can help improve your bottom line. 

With hard economic times and many Americans still struggling through a recession, companies have had to get creative with their marketing to convince consumers to buy their products or services. Consumers simply are not spending their money freely. When they do spend their money, they are shopping smart and looking for the best deals. Mobile marketing and proximity marketing have become the newest tools in the tool chests of many companies. Competition is fierce, and many companies are beginning to try these new marketing techniques.

With such an increase in mobile devices, mobile marketing is an outstanding way to reach customers. Just about everybody has a mobile phone or mobile device they carry with them everywhere they go. Mobile marketing allows companies to reach their market wherever they are. The most popular form of mobile marketing is using SMS text messaging. Customers can opt in to receive daily specials from local restaurants or coupons to their favorite stores.

As lunchtime approaches, people are trying to figure out where to eat, and they receive a coupon special for ten percent off to a local restaurant sent right to their phones. Chances are pretty good that they will now consider this restaurant for lunch. This is a great example of the power of mobile marketing.

Proximity marketing delivers marketing messages to people located in a specific location at a specific time offering a coupon for savings, or an advertisement. An example of proximity marketing would be to send an SMS text coupon for a free beer at a local restaurant with the purchase of an appetizer to everyone with a mobile device that is in attendance at the sporting event down the street. By using their location, and the time the event lets out, chances are far grater that the consumer will stop in for that free beer. After all, it is right down the street.

Another great example would be to send out a ten percent coupon to everyone who is currently in the plaza where your store is located. This is a very powerful marketing tool.

By utilizing mobile marketing and proximity marketing companies have the opportunity to market to the people in their location at the specific time they may be looking for their service or product. The advertisements can come in several ways. SMS text, video or picture ads which are transmitted and the consumer is asked if they would like to receive the advertisement. Once the advertisement is received, the consumer simply takes their phone to the establishment and presents the coupon to receive the special.

There are so many creative ways to use mobile marketing and proximity marketing to advertise and market any business or service. Proximity marketing and mobile marketing allow companies to specifically target consumers who are close by their place of business. They are quickly becoming very powerful and popular marketing tools. There is a very big potential for mobile marketing and proximity marketing.  Contact us today for a free marketing proposal on how we can help improve your bottom line.