The social media bubble has ballooned to zeppelin girths spanning the skies above the information super-highway. In the state of things, social media may be bigger than the Internet itself. According to Gary Vaynerchuk, author of “The Thank You Economy”, there is a large global shift in the way we communicate. This change in how we communicate affects how we conduct business, reach out to others and the way we approach our ad campaigns.
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In today’s new take on the information age, being the champion of a cause can speak volumes more than currency can. The reason for this is accessibility. To stay relevant in an age where everything can come and go within the click of a mouse the key is accessibility. Whether concerns, complains or commendations hearing the thoughts and suggestions of customers, loyal or casual, is never an easy task. Be it through voluntary action by the customer or by conducting outreach and garnering the results.
1. Filling The Need
You can debate the exact amount of white space you should have in ads and the perfect percentage of keyword density for SEO until you are blue in the face, but if your product or service is not perceived as filling an urgent and essential need, then you cannot complain about poor advertising effectiveness. Don’t just sell the features and tell prospects how your product or service works. Make sure you are promoting the real benefits for your prospective customers, the ones that are most important to them. For example, a toll free number is not just a way for your customers to reach you by phone or only a critical part of your branding. Toll free numbers have not only been proven to improve advertising effectiveness in terms of response rates but also through double digit increases in closing ratios and actual revenues.
2. Personalization
Both individual and corporate consumers are becoming more demanding than ever about the products and services they choose to acquire. They want to be made to feel special and that you care about their needs, and they often will only jump on those offerings that appear to be made just for them. This case is true whether it is a new smartphone, a marketing program, or a mobile app. So consider how you can improve advertising effectiveness or add options to your products that will give that personalized "created just for me" feel. You can also achieve this customer connection by improving on tracking and the flow of your system that will present visitors to your mobile and web presence with exactly what they are looking for and need. Or perhaps you should be creating multiple mini-sites complete with their own branding and vanity numbers to target specific niches in your industry.
3. Integration
In several ways, integration applies to increased advertising effectiveness. First, consumers and prospects are surrounded by so many channels these days that it is essential to keep in front of them wherever they are in order to keep your hold on your market share. No longer are consumers just bombarded by billboards, telemarketers, and TV ads. They are now permanently plugged into the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites whether it is on the computer at work, in their cars, or via their smartphones at every other moment of the day and night. Make sure you are in front of them wherever you can be as often as you can, keeping your service fresh in their minds and making it easy for them to acquire your products and services. However, integration is now also playing an extremely important role in the form of Facebook "likes." Getting your products and business "liked" means being able to tap into the sphere of influence and social network that each of your customers has with an extremely powerful word of mouth referral, so make sure to integrate social media with the rest of your business every step of the way.
4. Make It A "No Brainer" To Do Business With You Online
One major factor that has many business owners stumped at just how poorly their online advertising is performing is that they fail to recognize just how different it is doing business via the Internet than face to face. In the past, your sales team may have done great moving high end products with almost no effort at all. However, in many cases you cannot expect to charge the same premiums to complete strangers who are finding you on the web for the first time without making a solid effort to demonstrate your credibility through strong branding. You will also find your advertising effectiveness dramatically improves by offering trials or other incentives to get prospects to realize just how great your company is. Make it impossible for them to say no!
1. Mobile Marketing
Many have dubbed 2011 as the "Year of Mobile Marketing." As marketers, coaches, and ad agencies push more clients into mobile marketing as the "must have" tool for the year, we will see a massive rush to develop new apps. Just make sure yours is designed to keep up with the future and offers social media marketing integration.
2. Group Buying
Group buying is back in a big way. In addition to Mercedes-Benz, social media marketing giant Facebook has even moved into the realm of group buying and will certainly be attempting to grow the applications further this year.
3. The eBook Rush
We will see more and more books being released over the next year as a new wave of entrepreneurs turn their hands to authoring. However, we will also see a completely new breed of ebook developed offering interactive features.
4. Twitter
We will see an even wider use of Twitter in 2011 and more TV personalities using their positions to gain more followers. However, we are also likely to see more countries seeking to block Twitter in an effort to avoid civil uprising and organized coup attempts.
5. Permission Marketing
For many, permission marketing is the only way to do business already. However, this year we will see a widening gap between the success of those who are using permission marketing and those who simply continue to try and force their messages into the faces of those who really are not interested in seeing any more spam.
6. Affiliate Marketing Evolution
We will no doubt see a further clearing out of junk affiliate marketing programs this year, although at the same time will be an increase in quality partner programs and cross-promotion between complementary and quality companies and services.
7. The Social Media Marketing Monetization Manager
Thousands of new enterprises have spent the last year expanding their social media marketing and focusing on developing masses of followers and fans. This year we will see more companies hiring "Social Media Monetization Managers" to turn those outlets and prospect bases into real profits.
Branding
Many new start-ups put off investing in their branding in favor of doing more direct marketing in the belief sheer numbers will pay off. Of course, it really doesn’t matter how terrible your product, service, or business marketing is because you will probably find someone who will part with money for it. However, in order to survive and grow in the current economy, you must operate on higher profit margins and maximize your business marketing ROI. Starting from day one with a great brand, including an easily recognizable vanity number, will not only ensure you see higher closing ratios and be able to charge high premiums for your products, but you can generate thousands in referrals and residual revenues.
Targeting
No matter what industry you are in, there are many forms of business marketing that can produce revenues. However, unless you are making sure you are getting the maximum business marketing ROI, you will lose ground to your competitors. How do you determine your maximum ROI? When you make sure your business marketing brings your product to those who need and want it the most at the exact moment they need it or are looking for it, it will mean higher conversions and the highest returns on your business marketing budget.
Testing
As an entrepreneur or manager these days, you have no doubt already been told that you need or should try out all types of business marketing channels from Twitter and Facebook to direct mail and radio. However, despite all the advice in the world and regardless of your personal hunches and experiences marketing, without testing, you may as well just be gambling. By using toll free numbers for testing, you can now guarantee that you are putting all of your business marketing dollars to their highest and best use.
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If you have taken advantage of partnering up with a leading toll free number provider via an affiliate marketing program, check out the following quick and easy ways to let your visitors and clients know about your new service.
1. Blog
Your blog is one of the easiest and fastest ways to let all of your prospects and past clients know you are now offering toll free services. If you have chosen a leading toll free number provider to work with, you should find that it has already created some marketing materials, such as blog posts, for you to use.
2. Email
Why not use the opportunity of launching this new addition to your service to send out a new email campaign announcing your toll free number offerings. Or you can incorporate the news in with your regular enewsletters or autoresponders.
3. Banner Ads
A great toll free numbers service provider already ought to have created banners and image ads for you to use. You can use them on your own site or launch a PPC or CPM campaign via Google Adwords, Facebook, YouTube, or similar sites.
4. Your Own Toll Free Number
If you haven’t had your own until now, what better way to promote toll free numbers to your website traffic, channel partners, prospects, and past clients than to announce your own new winning number. You may even want to get out a couple of press releases to capitalize on the event to gain more publicity.
5. Twitter
Toyota this week showed that it thought a Tweet was worth $500 by offering big incentives to those re-Tweeting their latest promotions. Twitter is obviously the fastest and most direct way to get the message out about your toll free service partnership.
6. Website
Why not add an announcement or new page to your website about toll free numbers? More fresh new content is always loved by the search engines and could help you improve your overall traffic volume.
7. Sticky Widgets
The best toll free number providers have developed incredibly powerful sticky widgets for enabling your website visitors to make quick searches for winning toll free numbers right from your website and returning premium vanity number ideas instantly. Use these to boost the value of your website and hold traffic.
