Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms right now. As such, it’s the perfect showcase for your business. With so many people using Instagram, you need to stand out to make an impact with your audience and gain new, devoted followers. This means thinking outside the box. Here are four extraordinary ways to use Instagram to boost your company’s success.
1. Show New and Innovative Uses for Your Products
Most of your customers and followers already know what your products can do, or at least what they were initially made to do. However, you can increase user engagement tremendously by showcasing lesser-known things your products can do. Come up with some novel and innovative uses for your products, then post photos of your products being used in those new and interesting ways. Take it a step further by inviting your followers to come up with their own new and interesting uses for your products. Have them send you photos for possible inclusion on your Instagram page. Make it a contest, and award a prize for the most unique and/or useful suggestion submitted via photo. You’ll get a lot more participants and new followers, which is exactly what you’re after.
2. Show Your Production Process
Give your followers a behind-the-scenes tour of your production space, office, store, and other places where the magic of creating your product happens. Show them what a day in the life of one of your employees looks like. Don’t limit your images to just production. Show employee-only areas like cubicles, on-site gyms and daycare facilities, lunch areas, meeting spaces, common areas, and more. Include images of employees interacting with each other in both a businesslike and playful manner. Showcase each individual employee with a mini-bio (your employees will love this recognition). Give your followers an idea of what goes on at your company, and strengthen their loyalty to you by making your relationship with them more intimate and personal.
3. Include Celebrities
Our culture loves celebrities. If you can get an image of a celebrity sighting in your area, put it on your Instagram page. Whether it has anything to do with your product or not, it’s sure to get a lot of views. People who come by to view the celebrity image will probably take the time to look at the rest of your Instagram page, leading to more followers and fans for your product.
4. Use the Power of Animals
Just like celebrities can’t help but bring views to your Instagram page, animals have a similar power. Share images of cute animals you find that you like. Post photos of your employees’ pets (bonus points if the pets are at your office). If you can get an image of someone’s pet using your product in some way (even playing with it), your followers will love it, and it will attract new views. As with celebrity images, these new views may very well turn into new followers.
These are just a few ways you can creatively use Instagram to your advantage. Make sure your business has an Instagram presence, then make the most of it. Use these suggestions, and watch your views and follower numbers soar.
If you’re like most business owners, you love seeing positive reviews come through your virtual door, but you don’t really go out looking for them. After all, how many customers actually respond to solicitations for reviews? Is it really worth the effort?
It actually is.
Consumers are depending more frequently than ever on reviews from people they know and from sources they trust. They don’t put much faith in the write-ups companies develop themselves. They assume the organization will present itself in the best possible light. Customer reviews, however, are seen as more credible.
With that in mind, here are three ways you can use customer reviews to support your business.
Improve customer trust on your website
Place customer reviews and case studies on your product/service pages, at the bottom of your home page, and anywhere else prospects might look on your website. Positive feedback from real, live customers will encourage visitors to take what you have to say seriously and let them know that you already have numerous satisfied customers.
Harness the bandwagon effect
The bandwagon effect describes the natural human desire to try things we see others using. It explains why we instantly want the newest and latest gadget we see our friends or coworkers using. Customer reviews are a fantastic way to tap into this phenomenon.
Use customer reviews to let other people know just how much past customers have enjoyed using your products and services. Invite new prospects to ‘join the club’ of satisfied customers.
Enhance your marketing campaigns
Since customers aren’t all that inclined to believe whatever you claim about your company, don’t use your own words. Instead, use the words of your customers. Add quotes from positive reviews to your direct mail literature, social media posts, and radio ads. Think about the quotes movie producers use to promote their films. Take a similar approach with your advertising campaigns.
Customer reviews might be one of the most valuable tools you have in your arsenal. People want to do business with reputable companies they feel they can trust, and customer reviews help to build that confidence. Take the time and energy to cultivate positive reviews. You’ll be happy you did.
When it comes to producing valuable content, countless marketing and business professionals will tell you that you ‘should,’ but not many delve into the ‘why.’
“You need content to bring customers to your website!”
“You need content to keep up with the digital age!”
“You need content because that’s what your customers seek!”
These responses are the ‘reasons’ most often given for spending time creating content for websites and marketing materials.
In truth, creating valuable content will help you grow your business and improve your bottom line. Here are two key ways it accomplishes this:
1. It helps you build trust with your customers.
People don’t accept advertisements at face value. They choose brands based on how well those brands meet their needs.
When customers go online, they want to find answers to their questions. They want a brand to understand the problems they face, offer solutions, and explain why their products are the best at meeting those needs. When a prospect finds a company that answers their questions again and again while also providing them with a service that comes with good reviews, the decision to buy becomes a no-brainer.
Valuable content builds a reputation of authority and leadership in the minds of customers. They come to see you as someone who really knows your industry and feel confident knowing they can turn to you whenever they have questions. This increases loyalty and the potential for future sales.
2. It’s more likely to be shared, increasing your brand’s reach.
Customers today live on social media. Just about everyone has a Facebook or Twitter account. People use these profiles to share things that interest them and offer value they think others might appreciate. When you provide your customers with repeated value, you enhance the odds your material might be shared on these social sites. When content is shared, it automatically increases your reach, while also building credibility in the minds of all those who see the share. Customers tend to trust referrals more than standard advertising.
How to develop content that can work this way
The potential for quality content is incredible. Your task is to learn how to capitalize on it. Here are six steps to get you started:
- Research and identify the ‘ideal customers’ you want to reach.
- Learn as much as possible about these ideal customers.
- Determine the common questions and problems that face these customers.
- Develop content that addresses these questions and problems in an informative and helpful way.
- Share the content on blogs, social media, emails, newsletters, and other places to draw attention to it.
- Repeat the process regularly to stay current.
When you take the time to develop valuable content for your customers, you’re investing in helping your business grow. Take the time to create content your customers will appreciate, and watch the impact it can have on your brand.
The Great Gatsby is considered an American classic. Its recent film adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio has only increased its popularity. Few students in North America made it through high school without reading the book, and the film only helped to bring the images of decadence to life.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story takes place on Long Island during the 1920s. A mysterious millionaire named Jay Gatsby holds luxurious parties on a regular basis, all in the hopes of drawing his old lover, now married to another, to his home so he can rekindle the romance. Over the course of the novel, it becomes apparent that Gatsby has made his money participating in illegal activities, such as bootlegging, and has surrounded himself with an unsavory crowd of people who seem to care only about where the money for the next party will come from.
In the end, all the money in the world can’t save Gatsby from an untimely demise.
What we can learn from The Great Gatsby
Networking
Gatsby understood the importance of networking. He used his connections to build a reputation among the people of the fictional town of West Egg. His network even managed to bring him into contact with his old love, which was the ultimate goal of his parties and wealth.
Every business professional should leverage networking to build their company. It’s impossible to do business in a bubble. Networking will put you in touch with others in your industry who you might end up working with, as well as potential customers and clients.
Goals
Gatsby’s entire career was focused on reconnecting with his past love. He kept his eyes always focused on this prize and strategically worked to achieve it. From building his wealth to throwing his parties, his life was centered around this key goal.
Hopefully, your long-term goals are more business-oriented than Gatsby’s, but even so, it’s still important to keep your eyes focused on achieving them. Don’t get distracted or caught up in some new fad if it doesn’t help your company achieve its goals. Goals can change and adapt, but it’s important to always keep your eyes forward.
A strong foundation
Gatsby managed to build a wealthy empire for himself. However, this empire had a horrible foundation. He had built everything on an illegal enterprise and associations with people of questionable character. While he may have had good business sense, he still tried to take the easy way out — to build his wealth without having to develop an honest business.
When building your business, focus on establishing a strong foundation around a network of reputable business associates, strong products and services, and outstanding customer relations. Don’t take shortcuts. They’ll only come back to hurt you in the end.
The Great Gatsby is a classic novel that explores the world of the roaring twenties. It can be tempting to dismiss the moral lessons as products of a bygone era. For those of us in business, however, there are many things we can learn from Gatsby’s triumphs and failures. No professional should overlook them.
From the time the x-ray was invented around the turn of the 20th century, people have been fascinated by the capacity of these rays to capture what lies beneath the skin. When the technology is used by doctors, it can help determine if bones are broken, detect disorders or illnesses, or see how well a broken bone is healing.
As business leaders, we must sometimes look at our own businesses with x-ray eyes: uncovering and treating problems beneath the surface before they get out of hand or cause permanent damage.
Uncovering problems
Few businesses run perfectly. As any company grows, it will experience bumps, bruises, and hiccups along the way. Part of running the business involves being able to lead the company through these times, so you can come out the other side stronger and better prepared for the future. Many times, this involves easy fixes. Perhaps a new employee is needed to handle greater demand or a policy might need to be tweaked to adapt to an evolving workflow.
Sometimes, however, problems are not so easy to fix. Take, for example, customer service. We’ve all experienced times (as customers) when we’ve felt like we’re being passed around from person to person, trying to find a simple answer to our question. By the time we get our answer, we’re so frustrated with the process that we end up completely annoyed with the company. This damages the company reputation and may even cause us to stop doing business with them.
As a business leader, you need to realize that these kinds of deep, penetrating problems cannot be fixed with simple, one-size-fits-all solutions. Sometimes, you need to look deeper and see where the ‘bone’ is broken — and how badly — before you can begin to treat the symptoms and heal your company. Only after you have a clearer picture of what’s really going on can you find the right way to fix the problem and make your company stronger for the long run.
Making the repair
If your company is facing a major problem that can’t be fixed easily, don’t be afraid to go back and start over in finding the solution. While it can certainly be intimidating to think about how long the process will take and how much potential revenue you might lose along the way, it’s important to remember that taking the time to complete these repairs properly will make your company stronger over the long haul. This, in turn, will help to boost revenue and make up for lost time. Companies that neglect to make difficult but necessary changes often find themselves losing money (and customers).
So how can you go about fixing tough problems? Start with these steps.
- Sit down and plan out exactly what your end goal will be. Providing higher-quality customer service is one possible example.
- Work backwards to generate ideas about how this goal can be reached. This will typically involve doing industry research and learning more about what the competition does to accomplish a similar aim.
- Educate and retrain all members of the organization about the new methods and procedures, so everyone is on the same page, even those who aren’t directly involved with the affected areas.
- Invite feedback from customers and employees to see how well the changes are working.
Growing a business sometimes means being willing to go back to the drawing board to see how a key part of the business can be changed and repaired to make it stronger in the future. Don’t be afraid to ‘x-ray’ your business and find ways to help it grow in the years to come.
service@mlgprint.com
At first glance, the various platforms used for delivering your marketing messages couldn’t look more different. From social media to bus ads to print or radio ads, each platform has a completely different feel and intended audience. Regardless of the differences, however, it’s critical that your campaigns maintain some key consistencies across every medium.
What’s the purpose of an integrated campaign and what does it look like?
An integrated campaign works to build an audience no matter where the advertisements are seen. The campaign is designed with a common message that’s then tweaked and sent out over a variety of platforms in an effort to attract the attention of customers wherever they’re found.
Integrated campaigns send customers toward a common sales funnel. This means that the social media and direct mail components will both point customers in a common direction (promoting an upcoming sale, for example).
Design consistency is also a must, so customers recognize your brand wherever they may see it. Customers see thousands of advertisements a day. It’s important that they make a quick connection between your ads and your brand, so your brand can become more memorable to them. To accomplish this, use similar colors and designs on bus ads, social media ads, and print ads. This consistency will help you stay in front of your intended audience while simultaneously making it easier for potential customers to interact with you.
So how can you start making more integrated campaigns?
Begin by identifying exactly who you’re targeting and where those people can be found. Develop a common, unifying message, then tailor it to each major platform you intend to include in your campaign. That way, no matter where the customer encounters your brand, they’ll have no trouble entering the sales funnel. This might mean using QR codes in print advertising and prominent, well-labeled links on websites.
One of the biggest challenges many companies run into is maintaining consistency across multiple teams. For example, you might have one team that specializes in print and radio ads, while another group focuses on social media and website advertising. Make sure all your marketing teams understand the common vision and can successfully work together to achieve a collective goal.
As your campaign gets underway, track each portion, so you can successfully gauge where new customers are coming from. This will provide key insights into how well each portion of the campaign is doing and let you know if certain aspects need to be modified or even abandoned altogether.
An integrated marketing campaign is crucial for growing a company and finding new customers in the modern market. Rather than thinking about your various platforms as separate entities, integrating them can lead to higher brand recognition and conversion rates. Keep this in mind and prepare to reach your customers on a much deeper level.
If you’re ready to get started building an integrated campaign, give us a call or drop us an email to see how we can help you move forward.
Recognizing and grasping the right opportunities is important in nearly every aspect of business. Taking bold action at just the right time can take a company from decent to extraordinary, from paying the bills to thriving. In some cases, success itself can hinge on a single connection or contract that opens the floodgates.
If you’ve been around the business world very long, you know that success is not completely predictable. Some companies with very talented leadership and great ideas never seem to get out of the starting gate, while other companies with lesser talent manage to make it all the way to the top of their industry. The difference often boils down to knowing how to recognize opportunities and then having the courage to take them.
Recognizing opportunity
So how can you ensure you’re taking advantage of the right opportunities? The first priority is understanding your niche in the marketplace. Make sure you have a clear idea of how you’re serving customers and what you’re doing to stand out from the competition. This will help you recognize those unique chances when they come along.
Next, make sure you’re always on alert. That doesn’t mean you need to work perpetually and check email constantly, wherever you are. It does mean, however, that you must remain alert to opportunities in unexpected places. For example, if you’re out at a restaurant and strike up a conversation with another patron, recognize and take advantage of any opportunity you find for a business contact. Similarly, if you’re receiving goods or services from another company and notice some way that your company could help them improve, speak up and offer your suggestions. This is no time to be shy or second guess yourself. Strike while the iron’s hot, as the saying goes.
Don’t expect every opportunity to be perfect. Most won’t be. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth your time. Being right and being perfect aren’t one and the same. Those imperfect opportunities are often enough to help you grow your business.
Recognizing opportunities and having the courage to walk up and seize them can make an enormous difference in the success of your business. Playing it safe might allow you to pay the bills, but it will also limit your potential growth. Learn how to recognize the appropriate opportunities, take courage, and see just how high your company can go.
With the advent of the Internet and mobile technology, it may seem that print advertising has gone by the wayside. However, that is simply not true. In fact, there are still many legitimate, valuable uses for print advertising. One of those opportunities is coupons.
We see coupons in grocery stores constantly. Every Sunday paper has coupons that give customers incentive to try new products or new versions of older products. Why is that? Simply put, coupons work.
So how can you use coupons effectively if you’re not running a grocery store? Here are some ideas to consider:
Return Business
Coupons are one of the best ways to obtain return business. For example, consider creating a “Buy 10, Get 1 Free” card. This type of coupon works well for businesses that sell multiples of the same type of product. Examples might include “Buy 10 earrings, Get 1 Free” or “Buy 10 ink cartridges, Get 1 Free.”
Another option is to offer a coupon to every customer who makes a purchase, inviting them back into your store or to your website. Choose a specific dollar amount or percentage off the customer’s next purchase with you. You can track return visits to see how much business this method generates.
QR Code Coupons
If you’d like customers to visit your website, you can create coupons with QR codes that will take them to a specific landing page on your website where they’ll find a special offer. Since the QR code lands on one specific page, you can track the number of people who use it to see if your clients respond to this type of advertising. An example could be a limited time offer on a specific product or service that you’re promoting at that time.
Mixed Promotion Coupon
Another incentive for driving business is to match a special event with a discount coupon. Start by creating a flyer that announces the event with a coupon attached as a reward for customers who choose to attend. This type of advertising works well for a business that can demonstrate products. For instance, an art supply store might offer demos of specific products for customers who present the coupon. The combination of the demo and the coupon offer the incentive for return business.
New Business Coupon
Everyone loves a bargain, especially if they’re shopping for something expensive. If your business offers higher-priced products or services, a price-matching coupon might drive new business. For instance, if you’re in the car industry, you could develop a coupon for new customers that offers to match their best offer on a specific model car or a free service if you can’t match the price. Since higher-priced items trigger budget-conscious shopping, this type of coupon will drive new business to your door. Try partnering with related businesses to help distribute your coupon, add the coupon to the newspaper bundle, or mail it to local consumers who fit your target base.
Creative couponing reaches customers looking for a bargain. If that bargain is fulfilled with exemplary customer service and support, the result is often a stronger a relationship that leads to referrals and return business.
Young children tend to be relatively indiscriminate when it comes to making friends. As long as the other child is remotely interested in playing the game at hand, they tend to quickly run off together at a playground. As people grow up, however, they tend to become a little more selective when it comes to choosing friends. As we age, we look for people who share interests with us and possess a similar life outlook. When we find people who share these particular qualities, we begin to form relationships and bond with them.
Why we care about finding friends with similar interests
We seek friends who share our interests because these common touch points make it easy to find things to discuss with them. Friends who share our interests can anticipate our needs, answer our questions, and engage us in a way that people with whom we have nothing in common cannot.
Of course, these similarities don’t have to revolve around particular activities. Sometimes, personality traits or beliefs will draw us to our closest friends. But in all cases, there’s something we find engaging and significant in the other person when we begin to form a friendship.
Relationships with companies
For your company to be successful, you must build relationships with your potential customers. Understanding the dynamics of friendship can make this easier. Similar to the process of meeting new friends, your company must seek out potential customers who have particular characteristics that align with your buyer personas.
Just as a person seeks new friends by participating in activities they enjoy, you, must look for new potential customers in areas where those prospects tend to congregate. This might mean going to Twitter if you’re trying to reach the college-age crowd or to the daily commuter newspaper to reach middle-aged commuters on the metro. Knowing where to go to meet potential customers will make an enormous difference in the success of your marketing campaign.
Once a new customer has been introduced to your company, the relationship will need to be nurtured, so it can grow. There are a number of techniques you can use here. For example, providing a regular stream of content that offers value to customers will help them grow to trust your company to answer their questions and provide them with the services they require. Compelling content will also keep bringing customers back to your website or physical place of business. The more they return and are exposed to the company brand, the more willing they will be to do business with you.
You can also build relationships with customers by encouraging camaraderie among them. When customers feel like part of an exclusive group, they tend to have greater feelings of customer loyalty and are more likely to become repeat customers.
Building friendships typically involves finding people who share particular traits in common. You naturally use those traits to build a relationship you come to rely upon and trust. Similar techniques need to be used when building a customer base. Seek people with particular characteristics that match your identified consumer personas, then work to nurture those relationships and encourage people to return time and again. If you think of finding customers like finding friends, you should have great success building a marketing campaign.
One of the joys of eating out as a family is the opportunity to let each person choose their own meal. For those with a bit more daring palate, that might mean trying something new. For others, it might mean ordering an old standby they know they’ll enjoy. In either case, the person is more likely to enjoy their dining experience because they have the chance to order something that suits their own individual taste.
Distinct appetites and marketing
Just as every person has their own unique palate when it comes to food, your customers have their own appetites when it comes to how they want to receive your marketing messages. Keep this in mind as you plan your marketing campaigns. Work to tailor your message (and media) to address the needs of the various types of customers you’re trying to reach.
Begin the process by developing several key buyer or customer personas. Your marketing campaigns should be carefully tailored to address the particular characteristics each of those personas share. For example, if you’re marketing for a bank, the ads you use to reach consumers looking to save time checking their balances and making deposits might not be the same ads you would use to reach consumers searching for information on a reverse mortgage.
In the same way, try to tailor your campaigns to address the platforms your customers are using to access your information. Emphasize web links and clickable phone numbers on mobile websites, email addresses and phone numbers on standard web pages, and easy-to-remember URLs on print ads and brochures. For direct mail marketing, target your campaigns based on demographic information, such as income levels, number of children, location, and so on.
The more precise you can make your campaign, the more likely it will be to succeed. Customers appreciate it when they feel as though a marketing campaign addresses their unique concerns and problems. When customers see advertisements that don’t apply to them, they tend to ignore them. In some cases, they may even get completely turned off by the company involved. Taking the time to tailor your ads to address the needs of different groups of potential customers is the best way to start gaining new customers and improve the visibility of your company.
Whether it’s a night out with the family at a favorite restaurant or a marketing campaign aimed at gaining new customers, remembering the individual tastes of the people involved always makes good sense. A well-planned, well-focused, multifaceted campaign leaves customers feeling appreciated and increases the chance of reaching them when they’re ready to buy. If you’re ready to get started with your next marketing campaign, reach out to us to see how we can help you make it happen.
Moonlight Musings 