Most Effective Marketing Channels

The usage of videos and imagery have proven to be more effective than other media channels.

LinkedIn has documented research indicating that members of the "buying committee" are more likely to connect with vendors on LinkedIn than any other social media platform.

So, if video is good for business (Dell Inc. Enterprise Solutions Group increased its revenue 8% largely because its ramped-up video marketing efforts got 6.5 million views), and if LinkedIn is good for business, then combining the two makes sense.

Here are three ways to make that combo work for your B2B organization.
1. Turn your boring resume-looking profile into an interactive marketing tool
2. Generate more leads
3. Improve your outreach efforts

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/24936/three-ways-to-use-videos-to-maximize-your-linkedin-marketing-and-lead-generation#ixzz2zYho1jpW
Source for Graphs: B2B Marketing Prof

The Liberation Wrapper

This is an awesome campaign success for Japanese women eating burgers.

3D Xmas Cookies _Printed

I think this is super cool to have real 3D cookies in a card. Watch this video.

3D PRINTED CHRISTMAS COOKIES from Ralf Holleis on Vimeo.

Creating Consistent Copy For Multi Marketing Channels That Is Important To Your Brand

In a multi-channel marketing campaign, you must ensure that communication is consistent across the whole spectrum of your marketing endeavours.

1. Establish brand words
In order to ensure your messages are consistent, not only with each other but also with your core brand values, carefully consider the words you will use across all channels. Establishing and using a set body of brand words across your social media campaigns, emails and direct marketing efforts will strengthen your brand and help to ensure it is consistently communicating to your business customers.

It’s important to consider the style and tone used in each marketing channel. While the exact content of your copy will differ somewhat across channels, the overall qualities should remain the same. Using formal language in your marketing emails and then sending out a quirky off-beat message through social media may create brand confusion if it is not carefully done. This is where the aforementioned set body of acceptable brand words will really pay off: you should look to tweak the tone-of-voice between channels without sounding like a completely different brand.

2. Play to channel strengths
It’s important to define your key messages clearly from the outset and use the strengths of each channel to communicate these effectively. By identifying which of your brand messages are best suited to each channel you can boost their effectiveness.

Twitter, for example, gives B2B marketers the chance to get their message across in a single concise sentence of no more than 140 characters. This can be useful in giving your customers a quick heads-up on news and upcoming products. It’s also handy for quick-fire exchanges with customers. Using link-shortening tools can be a great way to direct Twitter users towards other websites, blogs or video sharing sites when you need to expand on the message. Email marketing, meanwhile, lends itself well to short snappy paragraphs with a series of meaningful headers, and can be supported by relevant images and videos that strengthen the message.

Twitter and Facebook, in particular, offer a great opportunity for B2B brands to communicate in a more direct, interactive and friendly way than traditional marketing channels like DM (bearing in mind the need to retain a standard lexicon for your brand).

3. Think strategy at all times
While each marketing channel has its own strengths and weaknesses, it is the coherence of your overall campaign that will determine the success of your digital marketing strategy. The purposes of your marketing efforts in each area should be underpinned by an overall strategy for increasing your brand’s visibility and bolstering its reputation.

When your brand’s values are communicated effectively and consistently across multiple channels, you provide your customers with a complete picture of what you’re all about and what you can do for them. On the other hand, if you communicate inconsistently or even contradictorily, you may confuse your target audience, leaving them unsure of what you’re offering.

4. Track your results
The key to an effective multi-channel campaign is keeping track of which marketing messages you are communicating, and where. In order to optimise your campaign for maximum results, it’s also necessary to monitor the success rate of each individual channel and hone your approach accordingly. Establishing a system for tracking and quantifying results is essential if you want your campaign to reach its full potential.

Once this system is in place, split-testing can be used to identify strong elements in each part of your campaign, and replace those that are under performing. In the world of Internet marketing, even tiny changes can make a difference, and taking the time to optimize your headlines and body copy according to what has been proven to work can really bring home the results.

10 Things Not To Do In Marketing

In any business you want to embark on, launching a product, a campaign, a service, or a new brand for your company, you got to do your homework otherwise costly mistakes can happen and failed business or campaigns.

You need to do your market research and testing to determine any campaign’s performance. This helps avoid guessing your potential customer’s needs. Also, make sure that you have tested your products/services, offers and packages.

Things Not To do:
1) Ignoring brand focus and positioning

Have proper focus and positioning for your brand. Your marketing approach should demand an immediate response from the recipient.

2) Lacking in focus on customer needs

Do you know your customers’ needs? You really need to know them well. If you don’t, how will you fulfill those needs better than others?

3) Targeting everyone

Though every company would love to be everything to everyone, it is not possible. You need to understand that by narrowing down your target audience, you increase the prospects of your brand. So it’s better to target only those groups you can deliver quality products to without making mistakes or over stretching your company.

4) Counting on rational thinking: Marketing campaigns are planned rationally. Consumers rely less on rationale and more on instinct when it comes to product purchase. So logically planned, rational marketing campaigns may not always smack the customer in the gut. Research has suggested that emotions play a major in role in purchase decisions and also sidelines reasoning along the way. So, play down the rationale and connect with your prospective customers at an emotional level.

5) Dependency on market research

Setting store too much by market research can be risky. Data generated by market research is not always accurate. Some researches can be misleading even. Consumers are not always sure or tell the truth about what they feel. So depending too much on market research can boomerang. Research is a boon for marketers. But it is to be used judiciously if you want to avoid backfiring campaigns.

6) Getting attracted to new tools
With the number of media marketing tools available today, it is prudent to not get carried away by the fancy, enticing promotions of those tools. It is always best to look at them with a critical eye and review before snapping one up for use. Stick by what you know works instead of grabbing a new tool just because its promotions were convincing.

7) Inadequate capitalization on USP (Unique Selling Point)

Your USP is an intrinsic aspect of your marketing plan. It is the point that sets you apart from your competitor businesses. One of the biggest mistakes is not focusing enough on your USP. Your USP is what will help you stand out and be heard over all the digital babble of companies. So, your USP should be the highlight of all your marketing campaigns; the star attraction that you build on. Marketers who have hit the bull’s eye in their marketing efforts have always focused on their USP. 

For example, when FedEx was introducing a new concept in shipping, it adopted the taglines: “When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight” and “Relax it’s FedEx”. It is evident in the first tagline that FedEx is focusing on its USP, the new shipping concept. It has gone ahead and simply highlighted its USP in a no-nonsense approach. In the second tagline, the company is highlighting its brand value. FedEx is a trusted name in the shipping and courier business. Playing on its brand name reinforces this trust in the brand.

8) Collateral overspend

Just fancy graphics and brochures without solid insightful content will hardly impress people about your business. Customers will not appreciate your business if it looks like the rest in the industry. They are always on the hunt for a business that seems different from others. So, a simple but information-rich blog from your company on how they can use your products to get more business from their customers is what will work. This kind of an informative approach to customers is more beneficial in terms of leads than regular marketing material.

9) Neglecting branding and exposure

Consumer engagement is at the top of most business priorities these days. Including B2B businesses. However, along with engagement, branding and exposure are also very important in marketing. A solid, high value brand presence and increased exposure make sure that your business is on consumers’ minds. This results in increased leads and inquiries. So make sure that your marketing channels are keeping you ahead in the race for exposure to your target audience.

10) Wanting immediate ROI

The time a customer takes to purchase a product is directly related to various factors such as the cost of the product, time to market, where they are in the product lifecycle, decision makers involved etc. The time taken for a deal to close in B2B marketing is a result of the influence of a combination of these and many other factors. Expectation of ROI should reasonably depend on an estimate of the time that will be taken by the influence of the various influential factors.

Brand Consistency In Messaging

In a multi-channel marketing campaign, communication consistency must be ensured across the whole spectrum of all marketing programs.

Establishing brand words
Brand words are core values of your company like "Pushing Boundaries" or "Good Design Is Good Business" in my case. These well thought out messages should be able to use across all channels in print and digital media. This will help build consistent communication to your audience.

The style and tone used in each marketing channel is crucial. While the exact content of your copy will differ somewhat across channels, the overall qualities should remain the same. Using formal language in some areas and quirky off-beat message through social media may create brand confusion if it is not carefully done.

Keep the tone the same throughout as this will build consistency in your brand.

Play to channel strengths
Define your key messages clearly from the beginning and use the strengths of each channel to communicate these effectively. Identifying which of your brand messages are best suited to each channel, you can boost the effectiveness.

Twitter, for example, gives B2B marketers the chance to get their message across in a single concise sentence of no more than 140 characters. By using link-shortening tools, this can be a great way to direct Twitter users towards other websites, blogs or video sharing sites when you need to expand on the message.

Email marketing, lends itself well to short snappy paragraphs with a series of meaningful headers, that are supported by relevant images and videos that can strengthen your message.

Twitter and Facebook, in particular, offer a great opportunity for B2B brands to communicate in a more direct, interactive and friendly way than traditional marketing channels like Direct Mail (bearing in mind the need to retain a standard lexicon for your brand).

Think strategy at all times
The purpose of your marketing efforts in each area should be underpinned by an overall strategy to increase your brand’s visibility and bolstering its reputation.

Communicate consistent brand’s values across multiple channels to provide your customers with a complete picture of what you’re all about and what you can do for them.

Track your results
Keep track of your marketing messages. Optimise your campaign by establishing a system to track and quantify results to reach its full potential.

Once this system is in place, split-testing can be used to identify strong elements in each part of your campaign, and replace those that are under performing. In the world of Internet marketing, even tiny changes can make a difference. Take the time to optimise your headlines and body copy to proven results.

Sally Hogshead- Marketing Your Brand Through Fascination

Grand Brands are built on the attraction they create with customers. 

- Sally Hogshead

Salary Guides for the Creatives

TCG_SalaryGuide_2012-1

Are Your Audience Really Engaged?

Emotion is the Fast way to the Brain.
Touch the Emotion... it is about learning and engagement.
Forget about clicking slides... touch the emotion of people to get a response!
Telling the stories or metaphors are the best way to communicate a one point. to get emotional response, followed by content.



More on...

Selling to Big Companies

Develop Sales Tools That Counts
The most important thing you can develop for your Sales Team, are tools that can help sell properly. Model your tools after what your top sellers by creating professional templates. Make more sales tools meaningful. It does matter when your brochure reflects your brand well. It should include case studies, white papers, phone script templates, obstacle-handling guides, talk-tracks, question guides, sales-driven PowerPoint presentations, ROI analysis tools, webinars or tele-seminars to help sell more effectively. Make it meaningful to your Sales Team as first impression counts. You can get the best of both worlds and bring brand equity to your company when Facts and Visual Appeal are juxtaposed professionally and appropriately. In essence, you are setting your standards above the rest.

Inpirational Shopping Bags...

That Made Me Think....
How wonderful these creatives came out with these ideas...
I could surely see this bag for Golds Gym or any Weight watches program doing this bag promotion.

Publish Post

How about the Adult Porn Store? This design is so applicable and classy. I cannot understand why Adult stores have to be so sleazy looking. If people are going to do something, they should go all out and do something great. Like go all out to be cutesy, or make the store look like a hello Kitty store or something like Victoria secret. Having a store and trying to be inconspicuous is not going to cut it... a store is out there and it is going to be seen anyway. Make it big!

This shopping bag could be for non-profit organisations. Or an advertisement that advertise for Kaiser, Stanford Medical. Even to promote a cause for autism or something to do with kids.

I love this one. I think there should be a woman and man with solid abs. This is definitely for any supermarkets.. what a great concept... it is not too expansive to promote as it can be in one color.. only
 for paper bags without handles.

 

Brilliant Concepts are always appreciated. Think BIG!

Goggle Buying Groupon?

I love the marketing model for Groupon... it is such a genius strategy. This is a win win for everyone. More said on this topic.

Founder Mason has just recently made Fortune magazine’s list of most influential young business leaders at number 25. His privately-held, Chicago-based coupon company was launched just two years ago and is valued at an estimated $3 billion. Rumors were circulating just over a week ago about take-over talks with Google but comments from the young Mason would make that deal seem highly unlikely.
Read More...

Good Website-Got Milk

A website does not have to be a template site like everyone else to be successful. Again, it is depended on your audience and the marketing function. What do you want your audience to do and how do you want them to react?  Every function of the website is different. One example is an information site, another is more retail, where you need lots of blows and whistles, another is an e.commerce site, another is a dynamic site where the importance of intereactivity is what the company does and more.

Weather content is more important than visual, it all depends on the business intent, the specific goal and target audience and the function. Sometimes, content and visual goes together and sometimes just text or content may be the only thing that is needed on the site to be impactful.

So do not lose sight of the main objective of what you want and design it according to that your objective.

What people are most excited about initially is that the site touches our 3 senses, audio-sound, sight-movement and image and touch-interactivity. Those get the wowza!

But in the end, your site needs to induce people to do something. Like call you, email you, blog about you, join your group, talk and share your site or buy into your offer to get something.

If you are not getting the response you want, then you need to redesign your site. Of course, I am going to say that ShamikoDesign can help you here.  : )

One of the websites that inspire me is:
GOT MILK?

The Paradigm of Cross-Channel Marketing

This two-part series discusses the difference between a multichannel marketing approach and a cross-channel marketing approach.

Moving from a multiple marketing channel strategy to implementing a cross-channel marketing strategy can be accomplished following a three-pronged approach involving process, technology and people.

Read More

10 Tips for Writing a Great Annual Report

This is targeted toward non profit organization. 

Even though nonprofit organizations aren’t required to produce an annual report like publicly traded companies are, most nonprofit managers recognize the value of producing one. An annual report can help you demonstrate your accomplishments to current and future donors, cultivate new partnerships, and recognize important people.

But since an annual report isn't legally required, nonprofits often struggle with what should be included in an annual report and what should be left out. The following ten tips will help you craft an outstanding nonprofit annual report.

1) Focus on accomplishments, not activities in your annual report.
We want to know what you did, but more importantly, we want to know why you did it. What were the results? Why did you spend your time and money the way you did? What difference did it make? Connect the everyday activities of your organization to your mission statement. Don’t assume that readers will automatically understand how your activities help you achieve your mission. Connect the dots for them.

2) Jettison the administrative minutiae to get the most impact from your annual report.
Getting a high-speed connection in the office and new accounting software may be big accomplishments from where you sit at your desk, but they have nothing to do with your mission. Inspire donors with accomplishments related to your mission in your annual report and leave all the administrative items for your board report.

3) Don’t over-emphasize fundraising accomplishments in the annual report.
Donors expect you to raise money, but fundraising accomplishments should not be celebrated in your annual report on the same level as your mission-related accomplishments. Readers are more interested in what you did with the money than how you raised it. While it is appropriate to include information on how well your fundraising efforts are going, it’s best to place this information in the financial section of your report, rather than front and center.

4) Include photos in the annual report.
Yes, photos really are worth a thousand words. Many of the people reading your annual report won’t actually read it. Show them what you’ve been doing with photos. If you don’t have a digital camera, get one now. It’s also fine to use stock photography to illustrate your work. Type 'royalty free stock photos' in your favorite search engine and you’ll find numerous sites.

5) Write captions that tell your story.
Now that you’ve got them looking at the photos, tell a story with your captions. Don’t just state what’s in the photo. Connect the photo to an accomplishment. If people read nothing but the captions in your annual report, they should still get a sense for the good work you did last year.

6) Include personal profiles in the annual report.
Donors will be more impressed with real stories about real people than general summaries of your work. Explain what you have accomplished overall, then humanize your statistics with some personal profiles. Highlight how your work helped a specific individual. Share a volunteer’s story of how they made a positive difference.

7) Explain your financials.
Many of your donors won’t know how to read a financial statement or won’t take the time to read it. Include a paragraph or two that explains in plain English what the tables say. Where does your money come from and how do you spend it? What are your main fundraising strategies? Did you implement any cost-savings measures this year?

8) If you need space, trim the donor lists in the annual report.
Nonprofits need to strike a balance between using the space in their annual report to discuss their accomplishments and using it to recognize donors. If as much as half of your annual report is donor lists, you should consider scaling the lists back to make more room for text and photos. Smaller donors can be recognized in other ways, such as lists in newsletters.

9)  Triple-check your donor lists.
There’s no better way to sabotage a future donation than to spell the donor’s name wrong in your annual report. If you are uncertain about a name, don’t guess. Check it with the donor. Also carefully check the names of government agencies and foundations that gave you grants. The names people call these organizations in conversation are often short-hand for the full legal names that belong in your annual report.

10) Tell donors how they can help.
Never leave a potential supporter hanging, wondering how they can help you. Once you’ve inspired them with the good works in your annual report, close by telling them how they can help you do more. How can they support you with their money or time? Do you offer planned giving options, for example? Will you accept gifts of stock? Can they use a credit card? Be clear about the best ways to help.

Effective Social Media Marketing Techniques

Check this website out.
www.actionwhitewateradventures

Note that they put a timer there. This gives people an urge to buy your tickets..
Everything here is in your face... I believe that the organization is a little confusing at a glance... but your eyes quickly goes to the timer. That did it.

The psychology of fear makes people do something. In this case, they make it a point of telling their friends in facebook, about this deal and more people take part of the adventures in fear that all tickets may be sold out.

I saw it with my own very eyes and in 3 days instead of getting just 50 which was a target number, it went to 173... all seats were taken. Wow! What a way to go!

Incredible marketing here!

Helping your Brand...Malcolm Gladwell

Seth Godin - Standing Out

To stand out, you got to be remarkable, different, eye-catching!
Mass marketing is for average people...
Marketing is different now... it is about target marketing.

Thank you Seth, this presentation is just brilliant!

Dan Cobley: What physics taught me about marketing

What you do affects your brand. It is the matter of physics.

Can BP Survive as a Brand?

Yes, they can... takes time and they have to change people' perception by doing "good deeds" to make impact for the greater good. After all, people do have short memories! Agreed?
Can BP Survive as a Brand?