17877227 – social media
Having the right connections—whether investors, customers, partners, suppliers or employees, etc.—can be a huge difference maker in company success. LinkedIn, the Facebook of professional networking, was purposely built and marketed as a great way to develop and maintain these connections. And it work if used effectively. (more…)
We’ve written before about the sales funnel—the process through which potential customers become aware of, engage with and, hopefully, ultimately become actual customers of your company. The first part of this funnel is typically referred to as “awareness.” This is the stage at which the market—as you’ve defined it—becomes aware of your product or service. They may never be interested in making a purchase or even learning more about you, but they are aware you exist and have entered this first section of your funnel.
At the heart of the sales process is the drive to move potential customers through the funnel from awareness to action—i.e., making a purchase. A lot of resources are put into measuring the losses at each stage of the funnel and figuring out the sources of that attrition and how to reduce it. Unfortunately, a lot of these resources may be wasted. (more…)
One of the persistent challenges for marketing departments is the ability to determine a reliable and justifiable return on investment for their marketing spend. One common reason given for this challenge is the difficulty in attributing revenue to specific marketing activities. But in an article for Forbes, Stephen Diorio argues that there is a need for improvement in how the money that is spent is categorized and tracked. (more…)
We’ve previously discussed the challenges many companies face when trying to calculate an ROI on their marketing efforts. For small and medium-sized businesses, this can make it difficult to justify increasing spend on marketing efforts.
But, just because you feel like you can’t spend more money on marketing doesn’t mean you can’t invest in your brand. (more…)
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
With an up and down history dating back to the 1960s, the software-as-a-service or SaaS model has become the norm in tech-centered industries over the last couple of decades. With a SaaS model, providers of various applications or data storage capabilities allow end-users to remotely access the application or data. This is in contrast to models many of us were familiar with in the 1990s and 2000s where you would purchase an operating system software and install it via CD on a personal computer, for example.
In an article for Entrepreneur, Thomas Smale writes that the SaaS model has moved further and further toward a subscription model and suggests several subscription model-oriented growth strategies. These aren’t strategies only for very large, enterprise organizations. Even the smallest businesses, or solopreneurs, can leverage the subscription model to build sales. (more…)
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
Google has not had a great couple of years in Europe. In March, the company was fined 1.5 billion euros—roughly $1.7 billion—for antitrust violations in the online advertising market. This represents the third such fine against the tech giant since 2017. “With the announcement on Wednesday, the European fines against Google total roughly €8.2 billion, or $9.3 billion,” says an article by Adam Satariano for the New York Times. “But the bloc has not received any of the money yet; Google is appealing the earlier decisions, and is mulling whether to appeal the most recent ruling.”
These fines provide some interesting business lessons relevant to any industry. (more…)
It’s hard to succeed at anything if you’re not focused. Whether you’re golfing, driving, taking an exam or giving a presentation, losing focus on your objective can be disastrous. The same is true of your social media activity. Granted social media marketing is a longer-term activity than golfing or giving a presentation, but the importance of focus is no less important. In particular, we’ve selected three key elements marketers should keep their focus on when engaging in social media. (more…)
(excerpt from Best Practices in Influencer Marketing)
Defining “influencer marketing” in the online space can be somewhat challenging as perspectives can differ wildly. Here’s a look at how experts in digital marketing are defining this term: (more…)
(excerpted from 21st Century Secrets to Effective PR: Tips and Best Practices for Gaining Media Exposure)
In the “old days,” there was advertising and there was PR. Advertising was paid communication that we created about ourselves. PR was communication that we earned through creating relationships and clever pitches to the media gatekeepers who would then share information about us on our behalf. Social media represents a new communication option that has had, and will continue to have, a marked impact on both advertising and PR. (more…)
There’s a raging — and quite interesting — debate that I continue to see taking place in various online forums about the relationship between PR and marketing. I’ve found it especially interesting because I recently was engaged in the same debate while teaching PR courses at a local university. Surprisingly to me, there is a group that believes quite strongly that PR is not part of marketing: that it is a separate and distinctly different function within an organization.
Frankly, that’s just “crazy talk” to me. (more…)
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