March 9th, 2010 by admin
By Josh Vick
From small business to corporations, from internet based e-commerce to affiliate programs, each business is unique. Without proper knowledge of the different options you have, it’s nearly impossible to market or advertise effectively.
Each advertising agency or marketing firm has differnt ideas and perspectives for what will best suit your business model and effectively meet your target audience, but without knowing your customers and the goals you are trying to reach, chances are you may be lead towards a campaign that doesn’t suit your specific needs.
Obviously, when you are ready to advertise or market, you are looking to increase the exposure and volume of your business. If you are planning on advetising, whether locally or nationally, you first need to consider your goals.
1.) What product or service are you trying to promote?
2.) Is it the most popular aspect of your business?
3.) It is a new product or an addition to the services which you already offer?
4.) Is it limited by certain factors such as service areas or product availability?
5. ) Does the service or product apply to all consumers in general or does it focus on a niche market?
6.) Is the service or product a specialty as compared to others available in your industry?
Knowing the answers these questions prior to hiring an agency to help with your advertising or marketing will enable you to communicate effectively of what your goals are and why. This knowledge allows marketers to more effectively evaluate your individual business situation and create campaigns targeted to the exact areas that will benefit your intentions. From billboards to print ads, internet marketing to promotional events, the possibilities are practically endless. Although advertising agencies specialize in finding your target market and the most effective platform to reach it, they often may not understand the ins-and-outs of your business.
If you do your part to truly understand the needs of your customers, including both the needs you can and cannot provide them with, the professionals will be able to increase the success of your campaigns by a large scale.
Before you contact an advertising agency or marketing firm, do yourself a favor and make a list of the following:
- List your most profitable products or services as well as those that return the least profit. Make note of the reasons behind each, including overhead costs, product or supply availability, risk factors, consumer demand, etc.
- List your top competitiors. If you are a localized business with a local customer base, focus on competitors of similar size who offer similar products or services. If they offer things that you don’t or can’t, make note of that as well and the reasons for it. If you offer things that they don’t or can’t, make note of that also.
- List your typical customer demographic. Does most of your business come from men, women, or an equal number of both? What are their average incomes? Are they younger, middle aged, seniors, or is age not a factor? Are they homeowners or renters? Single or married? DO they have children?? Their is an enormous amount of demographic info available to you based on knowing your typical customer. The more you know the better, but even a small amount can help.
- Do special offers help entice your customers or is your industry one which cost it not much of a concern?
Once you have a decent amount of information, THEN and only then are you truly ready to contact someone who can help connect your business with your ideal consumer base.
Times Ten Creative Marketing Solutions offers comlete marketing services from conceptual and creative to website design, advertising, marketing and media buying. Our goal is to help you increase your business by understanding your customers needs. For a free evaluation and consultation, visit our website at www.timestencreative.com.
To better understand the importance and complexity of marketing, visit our marketing news and strategies website at www.lamediamarketing.com
Tags: advertising agency, creative website design, internet marketing
Posted in Marketing and Advertising | No Comments »
March 1st, 2010 by admin
Text text text.. Everyone is familiar with text messaging nowadays, and as it grows more and more popular among the masses, advertisers and marketers are beginning to capitalize off of the opportunity. I’m sure a lot of you have recieved a text with a web address claiming “cheap prescription meds” or “payday loan money in minutes” - but that’s more or less spam, and not how one should intend to use text messages to promote, advertise or market their business. Instead, consider that there are many creative ways to advertise and market using text messaging and engaging customers without annoying them.
Using shortcodes and an automated system that can be easily setup online, you have the capability to offer unique savings or special promotions to your customers in a quick, effective and un-intrusive manner. Below are a few examples to get your creative juices flowing.
1. If you are a retail/storefront business, display a flyer near the register reading something along the lines of “text $$$ to 56 56 229 to recieve text messages on weekly specials and other unadvertised discounts. Available only when you subscribe by text.” Then, when someone subscribes, they are in your database. If you decide to have a 1-day only sale on a friday, simply send an alert to all the numbers who have subscribed with a description of the special exclusive discount. The text can contain a “code” which can be mentioned at the register to recieve the special savings. Customers will feel priveleged, especially when they recieve texts about an unadvertised 50% off sale. It keeps consumers engaged and makes them feel like they have an upper hand.
2. Offer a chance to win something free by texting. The consumer would have to text in to be registered to win, and the winner could be announced in 30 days. That gives you 30 days to promote the free giveaway, which is 30 days worth of free contacts. Each person who enters to win is now a new contact who can be texted in the future for special promotions or sales.
3. Using a survey, offer people something free. Anyone who participates in the survey and submits their phone number will recieve a text message containing a special promotional code to redeem their free product, service or discount. Upon confirming their code by texting back, they can be added to a list or printout of those who are available for the special offer. Participants can easily be confirmed by providing their phone number during the redemption of the special offer. The cool thing about this one is that the survey itself allows you to collect free consumer demographics and other valuable data!
4. Additional offers can be made by email blasts. These can be exclusive to those who subscribe to your emails. Each email can contain a special word to text which is then stored within your software. The customer is texted a confirmation back, which assures their special offer is waiting. When appearing at your store or business, the consumer can be confirmed as a participant by providing their phone number.
Use your head, be creative, and think of fun ways to engage your customers and retain their contact. By communicating on a regular basis you are helping to brand your business, increase customer satisfaction, retain your customer base, gain new customers, and more. For more info on how you can setup a text marketing system for your small business, contact Times Ten Creative, Inc. at 954.533.7851 or visit us online at www.timestencreative.com for a free consultation
Tags: internet marketing, marketing, text marketing
Posted in E-Commerce | No Comments »
February 18th, 2010 by admin
This is an absolute-must-have-tool for any webmaster or SEO. One of the most powerful analytical tools that exists to date, Google Analytics offers a seemingly endless log of information covering every important aspect of your websites traffic, visitors and trends. It’s cutting edge, and of course with a full team of Google developers keeping it up to date, it’s also one of the best around.
As a 3rd party analytic solution, this tool is unsurpassed and stores enormous amounts of information that can produce and compare statistics based on exactly what you deem important. It integrates seamlessly with Google Adwords to further enhance tha ability of comparison between natural and paid stats.
Setup is easy. Log into Google Analytics, add the URL you want to track and it produces a few lines of HTML code for you. Paste the code into the homepage of the site you want to track and you’re ready to go. All the data you need will be tracked and stored for review at your convenience.
When you login, there are multiple sections such as intelligence, traffic, visitors, content, and goals. Each section has sub-sections which carry detailed statistics on everything you need; and then some more. You have the ability to cross reference different areas such as traffic, location, and keyword so you can see how many visitors you have from a specific area who used a certain keyword to find you.
The possibilities are practically endless. If your target market is out of state or even overseas, it can help you monitor only those areas you want to monitor. Another benefit is if you have SEO and a Google Adwords campiagn at the same time, you can easily monitor, track and compare statistics between the two, which in turn will allow you to direct your keyword and marketing focus to exactly where it’s needed.
The tool, however, does have a few slight disadvantages. First off, it’s free. This means that there’s limited support. Second, all data is owned by Google and not by you or the website, which means Google does hold the right to remove it at any time. Third, although it used to, it no longer records the IP address of the users who visit your site. Lastly, it does not keep stats of search engine spiders or web crawlers that visit your site.
All in all, Google Analytics is a very powerful and valuable tool that you cannot afford NOT to use. If you’re serious about keeping track of your websites success, get it today.
Tags: analytics, site tracking, web traffic
Posted in Search Engine, Web Design | No Comments »
February 11th, 2010 by admin
A big part of SEO is getting out as much information about your website as possible. Press releases are often overlooked, yet are a factor that can contribute greatly to increased organic rankings of your website. Whenever you have a business related story or event that may be interesting, you should submit the story as soon as possible or before the event begins. Stories can be submitted to online newspapers (most sites have links or contacts for press releases) as well as article submission and press release sites.
The main benefit of a press release is that when the story is good, people will republish it. If the story includes embedded links or typed links to your website, these will act as inbound links each and every time it is published. Article submission sites are especially helpful because many news sources and blogs use them to get their stories, and usually will link back to your site also. The better the story, the more times it will be republished and the more inbound links you will recieve from it.
The main focus of this is to generate a truly interesting story related to your business. The advantage of industry related stories are that they will be most relevant to your website and therefor can be optimized with keywords, which in turn, allow each link to be more valuable when rated by search engines. Use this to your advantage, especially when hosting events or attending tradeshows. For example, if you are at a industry related tradeshow and experts or celebrities are speaking, you should capitalize on that situation by writing a story. The quicker you get the story on the net, the quicker it will be indexed.
If you’re the first or only person to cover the particular subject, it adds even more value to your article. Even an article that is loosely related to your business but offers the chance to be written with keywords relevant to your site should be taken advantage of. If you don’t normally submit press releases, consider it on a monthly basis. The long-term effects for your SEO campaign can be priceless.
Tags: article submission, press releases, Search engine optimization, SEO
Posted in Search Engine | No Comments »
January 29th, 2010 by admin
When advertising your business or marketing a new product, you have many different mediums to choose from that will help you reach potential customers. Different methods vary in cost, and that doesn’t mean just the cost of the ads or promotions themselves, but everything associated with them. From artwork to delivery, each method uses a different process, and no two campaigns cost the same. But before you jump into deciding which form of advertising you will use, there is a more important step - identifying and focusing on your customer.
You may think “I don’t need to do research, everyone is a potential customer so I’m going to do a bulk mail campaign and send out 50,000 postcards” which isn’t a bad idea because your reaching a large audience. On the other hand, there may be a more effective way. Are you targeting specific areas by using demographic groups who are the most likely to need your service or product? Have you considered other forms of advertising which will be able to pinpoint the best possible consumer group for your business?? Is there any way to track the effectiveness of your mailing? With a little reserach, plus the existing knowledge of your business that you already posses, you may be able to find a more financially efficient way to promote your business to only those who may be interested.
For example, if your customer base is 85% middle-aged females, you need to target that group specifically. Everything from your ad designs to your actual advertising platform should cater to that group. Your advertising needs to use images they can relate to, terminolgy they understand, and offers they find valuable. Maybe you should consider advertising in a local womens publication or distributing 30% off coupons at a female oriented event; both of which would not only save you money, but offer you more exposure to the consumer group that is most profitable for your business.
There are endless approaches that you can take, but even basic knowledge of your business gives you an advantage if you use that knowledge creatively. By constantly finding new ways to reach the most interested and profitable consumer, your advertising will be more successful and profitable. All it takes is some common sense and a little thought.
Tags: advertising, demographics, marketing
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 27th, 2010 by admin
Many have their own opinions as to which day of the week and which time of the day is ideal for sending an email blast to your mailing list. But in all reality, there is no general time that is better than the other. The absolute best time to send your emails is when the customer is most likely to not only to open them, but act on them as well. For each business this is different, and below we’ll briefly discuss why.
First, there are four different variables that need to be taken into consideration when identifying the most strategic time to send. First is demographics, then time, followed by mindshare and then the actual delivery time.
If for example, your main market for your email is women, you have to understand that working women will likely open and/or act on your email at a completely different time than a stay-at-home mother of three. Without having detailed demographic information, it’ll be quite hard to optimally time your email marketing campaign to your intended female targets.
Variables on time are literally unlimited because you have seven days a week, 24 hours in a day. And that’s not all. In addition, don’t forget that there are six time zones in the U.S. alone, and up to 40 time zones if your mailing globally. Ideally, you want to time your email so that your message appears at the top of the recipients inbox. Just because you send you email at 9am doesn’t mean that’s when it will arrive. Certain ISPs can and will delay delivery of your message for as long as a day depending on different factors including the reputation of the sender.
So - here are the some of the main factors to aid you in discovering the perfect sending time(s) and improving the response to your email marketing campaigns.
Keep track of the time your email takes to reach the inbox. Include your own test adresses from the major email providers to help determine what the overall average timespan is from hitting the send button untill reception in each inbox. (do this when sending out an actual mailing, not just a test mailing) This will allow you to include the delay factor into your sending time.
Monitor when recipients open and act upon your mailing. This can be tracked within the interface of your bulk mailing provider. This will show a minimal but sufficient amount of data to begin developing a plan based on general trends. Use that data to schedule your message delivery. If your data shows two or three major opening points (because of different demographics) consider sending the mailing out in segments.
Take into consideration the different time-zones, which may be another reason to segment the mailing by breaking the list up and doing seperate mailings. This is only possible if you have enough data to determine which of your recipients are in which time zone. If you think 5pm is your target spot, you may be able to increase positive responses dramatically if you perform 4 mailings, one every hour according to time zones so the mailings arrive at roughly the same time of day for all recipients.
Continue to analyze and track all the possible data available to you untill you notice a pattern. It’s all about trends, and once you’ve discovered the trends of your target market you will be considerably more successful each time.
Tags: email blast, email marketing, internet marketing
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 25th, 2010 by admin
After 7 months with an unfilled seat, the White House has finally found someone to tackle the job of cybersecurity co-ordinator. Obama announced in may 2008 that cybersecurity was a growing issue, one which the U.S. has failed to correctly address, and that he would soon appoint someone to manage the situation. After a long and tedious search, Howard Scmidt, a former executive of both eBay and Microsoft has been appointed to the position. Schmidt has also worked for Bush for nearly 3 years on improving network security for various agencies within the government.
The call for such an agency to improve cybersecurity is a smart one, especially in this day and age. Although not always newsbreaking, cyberattacks occur on the US on a daily baisis. Just last month, the Wall Street Journal wrote reports of an FBI investigation regarding hackers and Citigroup, Inc. where tens of millions of dollars were stolen by people they say to be Russian criminals.
Earlier this year, mainstream media had reported on multiple hacker issues including infiltration of the electric grid, breaking into the Air-Force air traffic control, and even cybertheft of top-secret fighter jet information.
The government already has security in position between the Pentagon, the US Department of Homeland security, the State Department, military as well as multiple other agencies. Schmidts job is to ensure everything works together and that it works correctly. A major issue is the transfer of digital documents between agencies and shared networks - places hackers often find thinner security which makes infiltrating the system an easy feat.
One fear, which has arosen by private business, is that new restrictions or standards may put an added strain on companies. If the government imposed new security standards for certain industries, it may bring unexpected and costly expenses to small businesses by forcing them to be in compliance.
Surely the new “cyberczar” has a tough job and challengin job ahead of him. Considered to be an issue of national security by Obama, the need is definitely present for some type of management and hopefully his solution proves to be an effective one.
Tags: internet security
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
January 22nd, 2010 by admin
By Josh Vick
After almost 7 months since it’s initial release, Microsofts new Bing search engine is alive and well. It’s definitley not replacing google, but it does have some rather cool features that deserve attention.
1. Background image on the search page changes daily. The pictures truly are remarkable photos, and are even interactive in a sense because they contain annotations about the location in the picture.
2. Navigation on the homepage includes a left hand search pane for images, video news, etc. On the result pages this offers info on related and prior searches.
3. Extended Previews allows a user to view a larger more detailed result by hovering their mouse to the right side of the listing. This really helps to find what you’re looking for if the initial site description is less than explanatory.
4. Calculate Math by entering an expression into the Bing search box. Enter 10×10 and Bing instantly shows a relust of 10×10=100. It even supports trigonometry. Very cool.
5. Package Tracking is simple with Bing. For example, you can type the name of a shipping company and a tracking number and Bing will provide you with direct tracking information.
6. Dictionary definitions are readily available with Bing. By typing “define” , “definition” or “what is” before any given word, the first listing in your result page is a dictionary definition of that term.
7. Searching within a website is even possible direct from bing - only with certain sites though.
Those are just a few of the neat features that Bing is offering up to the search-crazy public. Overall, I’d honestly have to say that at this point in time Bing is funner and far more useful than google for a multitude of things. On the other hand, I trust googles search results more, simply because they have been around longer.
In addition, with Google being the main focus for most of our SEO clients, I tend to lean towards google for ranking and relevancy information. I will however, research further into bings webmaster/SEO capabilities soon and write another article on my findings.
Tags: bing, Search Engine, SEO
Posted in Search Engine | No Comments »
January 20th, 2010 by admin
When using search engine optimization to increase exposure and traffic to a website, one factor that shouldn’t be overlooked are directory listings. They may not be the best inbound links available, but some of them are pretty decent, not to mention that many people DO use these directories and the chance of gaining additional traffic from them is well worth the short time it takes to get listed.
Many directories require a reciprocal link before they will include your submission, others charge fees ranging from $5 to $500. What people have to be aware of is that although they may claim to be an excellent directory, it is often not worth the price. There are plenty of completely free directories that require no reciprocal link and can help improve traffic as well as SEO efforts. I’ve compiled a list that includes 10 of the best free directories available in the US. Be sure to pay close attention to their submission guidelines so you have the best chance of being included. Most of these directories will notify you by email after your submission and then again if they add your listing.
1. DMOZ.org *This free directory is a must submit. The SEO and traffic rewards are incredible, however most sites do not get listed. Follow their rules for the best chance!
2. PegasusDirectory.com
3. SoMuch.com
4. WebWorldIndex.com
5. LinkCentre.com
6. Jayde.com
7. WorldSiteIndex.com
8. LittleWebDirectory.com
9. Tsection.com
10. AutoWebDir.com
Enjoy! Don’t forget to keep this list and check back to see if you’ve been included within their listings.
Tags: free internet directories, Search engine optimization
Posted in Search Engine | No Comments »
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