Splash Omnimedia Blog:

Is your best newsletter marketing strategy to skip it altogether?

Newsletter marketing is dead. Long live newsletter marketing!

Many business owners are abandoning newsletter marketing altogether. They’re frustrated as they spend hours every month wordsmithing the perfect newsletter together, pasting it into their email marketing platform, and then getting low open and high unsubscribe rates – worst of all, very few measurably profitable results.

It used to be that getting a free newsletter was novel. Subscribers gave out their contact information to anyone who asked, just so they’d hear from you every month. It used to be a good thing to get email – and more was better. Now, that pendulum has swung in the other direction, and the arrival of your newsletter in many recipients’ inboxes serves as nothing more than a trigger to remind them to unsubscribe and decrease their email volume.

Unless…

You’re doing it right. Newsletter marketing strategy, like every other online marketing tactic, must evolve to match the savvy quotient of your recipients. The right balance of valuable information and promotional text can still create a sort of push-button revenue stream for businesses who stick with it.

If you’re not getting the results you’d hope for from your email marketing plan, contact the newsletter marketing experts at Splash before you send one more message to your list.

Is it worth it to hire a graphic design company?

Clip art’s got its place – but probably not anywhere near your business. Stock photos? Very useful for certain tasks. Free graphics programs? That’s another story entirely. There are solid, logical reasons successful businesses turn to a professional graphic design company like Splash rather than trying to create graphics on their own:

• Time. Unless you are a professional graphic designer, you will need to spend a significant amount of time learning how to use a graphics creation program. The simpler the program is to learn, the lower the quality of the end results. The better the results, the harder it will be to learn. There’s no short-cut for this learning curve.
• Usability. Even if you learn how to use some graphics creator software to make something, getting that design to be usable in print or online is another matter. You could easily waste a lot of time and effort creating something that can’t ultimately be used.
• Leverage. It’s just good business to guard your time and other resources. The goal is to make the highest, best use of every resource you have. With all you’d need to pour into a graphic design project, consider the opportunities you’re missing by tying yourself to a project someone else could do for an overall lower cost.

Every business needs graphics. If you see the wisdom in leaving this task in the hands of a graphic design company rather than trying your own hand at it, ask Splash to help.

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.

If you’ve ever considered producing television commercials for your business, web videos may be a better solution… or maybe not.

What's the difference between television commercials and web video? Which would work better for your business?

Marketing with Television Commercials

 

Television commercials can be constructed and filmed to display a brief marketing message to your audience. If you have a popular ad that is converting well or if you have a slogan you want to brand, then a commercial may be the way to go. Viewers are expecting to see ads on TV, and we can help you create one they actually enjoy watching.

Marketing with Web Video

With Google buying YouTube for a total of $1.65 billion in 2006, web video has increased in popularity. With smart phones, iPads, and the iPhone, consumers are watching an average of 46 years of video each day across the world. Web video approaches marketing from another angle, creating a personal bond with your audience. In this medium advertising is much less aggressive and the main focus is to build rapport with your target market, positioning your business as the best solution for their needs.

 

Television Commercials, or Web Video: What’s a better fit for your business?

It all depends on your goals and budget. To get started with a series of creative and effective television commercials for your business, request a proposal now. Click: Request Proposal.

Build it and they will come. Wouldn’t it be nice if that was how it worked in business? You can offer the best service in the world at the best prices, but if people don’t know your brand then you won’t make a single sale. To solve this issue, marketers focus many efforts towards increasing brand awareness and driving traffic both online and to brick-and-mortar stores.

Sometimes businesses have the opposite problem; they are doing everything right to bring customers in but just can’t seem to convert that website traffic into sales. Creating an effective SEO or social media strategy will bring potential customers to your site, but converting those visitors to loyal customers takes much more than impressive traffic numbers.  For maximum benefit from online marketing, you need to maximize both traffic and conversion rates (see picture below).

Why SEO and branding need each other

Branding is the whole experience. For search engine optimization to result in conversions (sales), you need to consider how all aspects of marketing work together to create synergy for a more successful whole. An SEO strategy is much more effective and has greater chance for success when incorporated into the overall branding strategy.

SEO and branding work together to create a feedback loop that will take your business to the top.

How branding improves SEO

• Increase website conversion rates. As you differentiate your brand and position your company directly in front of your target market online, your search engine referral traffic will be more likely to convert as searchers find exactly what they are looking for on your website.
• Increase click-through-rate. Having a strong and well-known brand will increase the power of your SEO efforts by influencing a higher click through rate as searchers recognize brand authority.

How SEO improves branding

• Increase brand reach and awareness. As rankings increase for a diverse set of industry related keywords, your brand name will be in front of more potential customers that are already looking for a business just like yours.
• Increase brand loyalty and credibility. Repetition is key. Showing up in as many places on the web as possible creates a sense of authority in your niche that will improve both the loyalty and credibility of your brand to potential customers.

Does your marketing mix work together to help your company grow larger than the sum of its parts? Or does your business throw strategies at the wall hoping for something to stick? Contact us for a free marketing consultation to learn how we can help you blend your marketing ‘ingredients’ into a perfect medley.

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.

Effective marketing encompasses a wide variety of strategies, including online marketing, social media, and advertising.  However, without a solid branding strategy most marketing efforts will fall flat. A branding strategy will provide a foundation for a successful marketing campaign, giving it direction and substance, so that the marketing message hits the target audience.

 

Branding is the whole message prospects and customers receive about your business. It’s the conveyed personality, mission statement, graphics and logos, slogans, customer service style and employee perceptions all rolled up into one. Anything your business does or creates ties into branding.

 

When it comes to standing out among your competitors, few things are as important as a branding strategy. A cohesive brand that you consistently weave throughout all of your business messages and practices positions you in the mind of customers and prospects. When they see a certain image, hear a certain message or even see a certain combination of colors, your company should come to mind. This is branding strategy at its finest.

 

Contact us today for a free marketing proposal on how we can help improve your bottom line. 

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. 

HVAC marketing has become a necessity for companies trying to get a step ahead of the competition. There are many HVAC companies all competing for the same jobs. And with a slow economy, consumers just don’t have the money to spend to replace air conditioning and heating units. There is too much competition and not enough work. HVAC marketing can help you increase your exposure and help you increase your sales. If you are not effectively marketing your HVAC business, you are missing a golden opportunity to increase your market. There are plenty of ways to increase your HVAC marketing.

 

Online marketing has become essential to business owners who want to increase their profits. By creating a website for your business and developing an online presence you are greatly expanding your audience. Consumers today go online to search for whatever product or service they are in need of. If their air conditioning unit stops working, they will search online for an HVAC company. If your HVAC marketing doesn’t include an online presence, those consumers won’t find you. They will, however, find your competition.

 

The use of mobile marketing has been rapidly increasing. Consumers are using their cell phones and other mobile devices more and more. With mobile marketing, you can send a valuable coupon directly to the consumer’s cell phone. Make sure that your website is mobile phone and mobile device friendly. If your website is not mobile phone friendly, the website will appear disfigured in the mobile device, and important information may not be readable.

 

Social media sites are also a great new tool for HVAC marketing. Create a Fan page on Facebook and add informative videos about HVAC services onto YouTube. Blogging has also become an excellent and effective form of HVAC marketing. Write a blog about the things that bring value to your customers. A good blog post can be about how to winterize their homes and include suggestions to have their furnace check-up done before the cold arrives.

 

Yes, traditional HVAC marketing is still valuable. Yellowpages, coupon mailings, magazine, newspaper and billboard advertising are still effective. You do still need to have an online HVAC marketing strategy to go along with the traditional HVAC marketing to help increase your business.

 

By creating a successful HVAC marketing plan that includes creating an online presence, you will see your HVAC business grow.   Contact us today for a free marketing proposal on how we can help improve your bottom line. 

Many online marketing and SEO agencies will have you believe that offline or traditional marketing is dead, and that you should focus all of you efforts and budget online.  This is just simply not true.  While online marketing is a core distribution channel that should not be ignored, the strategic implementation of both methods creates powerful synergy.  

The focus has shifted is all, making online marketing more and more relevant to modern businesses.  Here are a few ways that you can integrate your off-line and on-line marketing efforts for maximum exposure and interaction:

1. Use QR codes on print materials – A quick response (QR) code is a small crypted box with a pattern that regular smart phone cameras can scan.  These are great to put on business cards, brochures, or even on the packaging of your products.  Depending on the placement and the goals of the code, you can link to a youtube video, automatically add a contact to your phone, or link to a landing page with special coupons or deals.  With tools like google analytics, QR codes give you a way to track the effectiveness of print advertising more efficiently.  


2. Turn off-line traffic into on-line traffic – Websites offer a low stress way for potential customers to learn more about your company and the products that you offer without having to deal with pushy salespeople.  Make sure that your website is on everything that your brand name is on.  That way, customers can always find your website and visit it on their own time when they are ready to take the next step through the buying cycle.


3. Keyword research – There are two great ways that keyword research for SEO and PPC can improve your offline marketing efforts; by giving you an idea of how consumers define your niche and by showing you how often certain products and services are searched for online.  With this valuable intel, you can improve your print copy and find better metrics to determine seasonal products based on search volume statistics throughout the year.


4. Competitive research – If you are effectively marketing your business online, then you have gathered all kinds of juicy competitive data.  This data is largely used to improve and tweak your online efforts, but it can also be used in creative ways to improve offline methods.  The website acts as a one stop shop for all of the information you could need about a competitor like products offered, pricing, positioning, and even what markets they are trying to target.

So how can a company balance the various marketing tactics in a way that is both complimentary and budget friendly?  Contact Splash Omnimedia today for a free consultation and proposal that will focus on maximizing your return on investment through the strategic implementation of the right marketing channels for your business.  Contact us today for a free marketing proposal on how we can help improve your bottom line.